Military-Authoritarianism in South America: Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina

Abstract

In recent years, a number of South American countries have been subjected to durable military governments. This phenomenon was not at all foreseen twenty years ago. Four different approaches have been adopted to try to explain this resurgence of authoritarian rule. These have related it to economic change, seen it as a reaction against uncontrolled social mobilization, regarded it as a corporatist throwback to earlier Latin American forms of rule, and related it to changes in South American military institutions after the Cuban Revolution. All four hypotheses will be examined and found wanting (although all have partial validity). Linz's more general paradigm of authoritarian rule is then examined, broadly accepted but found to be excessively static. Finally a more complex ‘two track’ hypothesis is put forward relating to the political evolution of military-authoritarian regimes.