1. See, for examples, William J. Jorden, Panama Odyssey (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984); David N. Farnsworth and James W. McKenney, U.S.-Panama Relations, 1903–1978: A Study in Linkage Politics (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1983); and William L. Furlong and Margaret E. Scranton, The Dynamics of Foreign Policymaking: The President, the Congress, and the Panama Canal Treaties (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1984).

2. One of the best in this regard is Walter LaFeber's classic, The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).

Given the level and intensity of U.S. ties to Panama throughout the twentieth century, it is surprising how little scholarly inquiry has focused on Panamanian domestic politics. As a result of the negotiations over new canal treaties, some excellent work was done on U.S.-Panamanian diplomatic relations during the late 1970s and early 1980s.¹ Yet few books produced during this period by U.S. scholars devoted more than passing attention to domestic political considerations and developments.²

3. The former genre includes Frederick Kempe, Divorcing the Dictator (New York: Random House, 1990); John Dinges, Our Man in Panama (New York: Random House, 1990); R. M. Koster and Guillermo Sánchez, In the Time of the Tyrants (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990); and Kevin Buckley, Panama: The Whole Story (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991).

4. For examples, see Omar Jaén Suárez, La población del istmo de Panamá del Siglo XVI al Siglo XX (Panama City: Impresora de la Nación, 1978); and Ricuarte Soler, Formas ideológicas de la nación panameña (Panama City: Tareas, 1985).

5. For a more comparative study of Latin American and Asian patterns, see Manufacturing Miracles: Paths of Industrialization in Latin America and East Asia, edited by Gary Gereffi and Donald L. Wyman (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990).

6. Hong Kong faced such a crisis in the 1950s following the Communist takeover in mainland China. Trade from the mainland was reoriented away from Hong Kong and toward the Soviet Union, and the United Nations instituted an embargo. Singapore's commercial elite had to adapt in the 1970s, when plans for a common market with Malaysia collapsed following the withdrawal of the British military in 1971.

7. For one explanation of the durability of military rule in Panama from 1968 to 1989, see Steve C. Ropp, “Explaining the Long-Term Maintenance of a Military Regime: Panama before the U.S. Invasion,” World Politics 44, no. 2 (Jan. 1992):210–34.

8. The arguments advanced by Zimbalist and Weeks and by Phillipps concerning the weaknesses of the urban commercial elite are really two sides of the same coin. Zimbalist and Weeks note the elite's lack of strong historical ties to rural popular sectors while Phillipps focuses on its exclusive links to foreign capital.