2
issues involved in mass behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine a particularly puzzling
instance of public response to government actions using the tools of formal theories of politics,
though addressing some of their limitations by incorporating insights from other theoretical
perspectives, mainly neoinstitutionalism and constructivism, into the analysis. The goal is to
provide a more intricate account of an individual case, thereby suggesting possible new ways of
studying these phenomena.
In the case in question, the population of a democracy expressed in no uncertain terms a
sudden rejection of its government’s economic policies after decades of continuous support. In
early 2000, Costa Rica, Latin America’s most stable democratic regime, experienced the
eruption of a nation-wide popular movement protesting a government initiative designed to open
private participation in the electric and telecommunication industries – managed by the Costa
Rican Electric Institute (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad – ICE) – mostly to foreign
companies. The proposal came as a surprise to no one – it represented, in fact, the continuation
of a structural adjustment program begun in the early 1980’s – and this made the vehemence of
the public’s opposition all the more startling.
What could have caused such a change in the public’s preferences? Remarkably,
government officials, independent researchers, and the mainstream media all found the reaction
to the initiative to be fueled more by an emotional attachment on the part of the public to the ICE
itself and on a sense of disenfranchisement than on any perceived negative outcome of the
initiative. Rather than discussing the pros and cons of adopting a natural next step in a process of
economic reform almost twenty years in existence, the national debate revolved around the
‘symbolic’ significance of the ICE for the people and unwillingness to part with a “beloved
national patrimony.” Such emotion-fueled reactions and emphasis on the importance of “national
Convention