Back to basics: assessing military involvement in politics in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

As Brazil showed signs of progress in civil-military relations in the late nineties and early 2000s, research moved from civilian control to defense policy topics, resulting in neglect of less obvious forms of military involvement in politics, which pre-date Bolsonaro. To support our claim, we begin by critically reviewing existing frameworks for assessing progress in civilian control and propose returning to the field’s primary concern with military intervention in politics by using three indicators - military presence in government; public commentary by military officers; and episodes of military contestation – and their implications regarding the armed forces, politicians, and society. Then, we make an account of instances of the three indicators during Dilma Rousseff’s and Michel Temer’s presidencies. We conclude that military involvement in politics in Brazil is a pervasive social phenomenon posing serious risks for democracy.