Military Dictatorship Research Articles

Can the military be a better manager of the economy?

AbstractPakistan has struggled for a political system suitable for its postindependence development; however, repeated struggles between democracy and dictatorship have slowed Pakistan's economic growth. I quantified the impact of military dictatorship on Pakistan's economy from 1999 to 2008 using synthetic control methods. I found that while the average annual GDP per capita growth grew during the military dictatorship, it was four times lower than synthetic Pakistan's. I conclude that the military did not help Pakistan with its economic malaise. The increase in military expenditure and the prevalence of terrorism due to the military dictatorship may have hindered Pakistan's economic growth.

Selling the junta abroad: PR campaigns and UK–Greek relations during the Wilson government, 1967–69

ABSTRACT The propagandistic machine of the military dictatorship that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974 has provided a focal point of scholarly inquiry in recent years. However, research has focused on the domestic front—the role of radio, television, and cinema—and has completely neglected the issue of public relations in the foreign policy arena. Nothing is known about how the dictatorship, which held an exceedingly weak reputational hand, strove to remake its image to the outside world. This article addresses this historiographical lacuna, exploring the Greek junta’s attempts to improve its international reputation by enlisting the services of foreign public relations (PR) firms. By demonstrating the interplay of nation branding and foreign policy in this way, this article highlights the underappreciated role of transnational non-governmental actors such as PR firms in the ‘nation branding’ of authoritarian regimes. In the process, it reveals how the lobbying activities of a London-based PR firm enlisted by the junta vitiated UK–Greek relations during Harold Wilson’s Labour government, and culminated in an important, and underexplored, flashpoint in political discourse concerning the outside interests of parliamentarians and standards of integrity in British public life.

Biopolitics and Inscriptions: Raúl Zurita's Poetry as a <i>communitas</i> of Pain

This article analyzes part of the poetic work of Raúl Zurita, expressed both in some of his poetry books and in his "inscriptions" or material inscriptions and in his corporal self-mutilations to determine the functions that his art fulfills in the face of neoliberal biopolitical practices (Foucault, Agamben, Calveiro) and as a bet for a communitas of pain (Diéguez). It explains the meaning and function of books such as Purgatorio (1982), Canto a su amor desaparecido (1985) and zurita/in memoriam (2007), or interventions such as her verse "ni pena ni miedo" in the Atacama Desert, her presence in memorials or her intervention "El mar del dolor"; all as differentiated forms of resistance from art, against strategies of power that tried to "let die" part of the society in the context of the military dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990) and also in other contexts of human rights violations.

From other lands and languages to wake you up: Taiguara, music as a battlefield

This work addresses the surveillance of ideologies and customs by the State apparatus during the Military Dictatorship in Brazil, especially concerning music. The case of Taiguara stands out, as a composer who, by repeatedly trying to personally defend his songs, ended up gaining a reputation of nonconformity in the face of censorship. This eventually worsened as the military regime began to restrict not only songs about customs, but also about content considered subversive. Thus, there is a nexus of causality between the musician’s career, and in parallel, the escalation of repression beginning with the Coup of 1964. Surveillance was evident even during the televised music festivals of the 1960s, where the musician had a constant presence. This eventually led to Taiguara’s two periods of exile, the first in England and the second in Tanzania. The album Imyra, Tayra, Ipy (1976) was the culmination of this persecution, because even though it had passed the filter of censorship, it was hastily recalled as soon as it was distributed. In addition to discussing the exile and censorship faced by Taiguara, we analyze the composer’s musical solutions and lyrics in this context. His critical stance and defense of agendas that today would be classified as progressive made him stand out as an artist in search of freedom of expression.

Transitional Justice in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia in a Comparative Framework

This thesis aims to enhance transitional justice studies with a focus on the Balkan peninsula, by providing a comparative analysis of the extent of transitional justice mechanisms in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. With the fall of military dictatorships in Latin America in the 1980s, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the emergence of new states in the 1990s, the concept of Transitional Justice (TJ) saw a significant rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This was further propelled by the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), the prolonged breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992) as well as the fall of the communist dictatorship in Albania (1990). The emergence of new states and the state-building processes that followed the political and social changes also brought new challenges and conflicts, although they marked the end of significantly repressive political regimes. Considering that the implementation of TJ has undergone several changes over time and is dependent on the different settings in which it was employed, it is necessary to conduct extensive comparative research to determine the extent to which TJ differs in post-communist and post-conflict nations. The study has developed three main hypotheses: (1) The limited achievement of lustration law in Albania has conditioned the current status of transitional justice; (2) The state-building process has contributed to the evolution of Transitional Justice in Kosovo; (3) The power-sharing process as a TJ pillar in North Macedonia has fueled TJ in the country. By utilizing a mixed methods approach, data was collected through elite interviews, conducted in the three countries with 44 representatives from academia, politics, media, and civil society. To conclude, two hypotheses are fully upheld in terms of the limited achievement of lustration law and its implications with the current status of transitional justice in Albania; and the contribution of state-building in Kosovo to the evolution of transitional justice. The third hypothesis related to the power-sharing process in North Macedonia as a fueling mechanism for the evolution of transitional justice is partially upheld. Received: 13 February 2024 / Accepted: 30 April 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024

Gender, Dissent and the Afterlives of the Pakistan Movement: Fatima Jinnah in the 1965 Elections

This article focuses on Fatima Jinnah’s politics in postcolonial Pakistan. Widely hailed as the ‘Mother of the Nation’ in contemporary Pakistan, Fatima Jinnah harbours immense symbolic significance. Her patriotism, however, came furiously under question when she campaigned against the military dictator Ayub Khan in the 1965 presidential election. Using unexplored Fatima Jinnah papers, this article reconstructs the story of the election. It argues that the figure of Fatima Jinnah needs to be firmly placed outside the reductive epithets of ‘mother’ and ‘sister’ to underscore her political agency. It unpacks her campaign to show how her advocacy for democracy contested Ayub Khan’s interpretation of Pakistan’s ideology. Ultimately, her politics of dissent saw her branded a traitor and became the battleground for questions of gender, Islam and political rights. This election deepens our understanding of women leaders in postcolonial Pakistan and South Asia.

Crafting arts-based stories of exile, resistance and trauma among Chileans in the UK

ABSTRACT In 2017 an exhibition of over 100 craft pieces created by Chilean political prisoners held in concentration camps during the military dictatorship, was launched in the UK along with an accompanying short film, ‘Crafting Resistance: the Art of Chilean Political Prisoners’. Drawing on these arts-based interventions, the paper reflects on the use of craft objects both as a symbol of political resistance and a means of initiating difficult conversations around forced political exile, trauma and mental health while creating space for people to ‘tell their stories’. Indeed, the paper contends that projects such as Crafting Resistance can ‘care for knowledge’ through the curation of craftwork while simultaneously creating space for counter memories. The analysis also highlights the changing relationship between the craft makers and the craftwork, argueing that placing the craft objects within the exhibition assigns a new role to the objects as they became part of a display of collective memories and potentially contribute towards collective healing. Finally, the paper advocates for greater recognition of the historical use of craft as a political expression, which to date has been relatively neglected in debates around the use of arts-based research and methods.

Gender and Expertise in the Mixed Economy of Mental Welfare in Greece

The late 1970s and the 1980s were a time of political and social change in Greece, following the collapse of the seven-year military dictatorship, as well as a time of rupture in mental healthcare: new approaches were being developed, including those implemented by the Society of Social Psychiatry and Mental Health, a voluntary, nonprofit scientific association, founded in 1981 (officially in 1986). This article places the initiatives undertaken by the society within the international context of postwar mental healthcare, and within the national postdictatorship framework. It uses the analytical concept of the “mixed economy of welfare”, demonstrating that the society’s work was based on the synergy between the private and the public. Furthermore, the article discusses how concepts of gender were embedded in and shaped by the work of the society in the 1980s, arguing that the society reproduced the traditional gender hierarchies of the mental health field while reworking the hierarchies within its personnel – psychiatrists and other professionals, experts and nonexperts, and, by extension, to some degree at least, men and women mental healthcare providers.

Strange Bedfellows or Trusted Comrades? Digital Solidarity Building among Myanmar’s Revolutionaries

The shock and anger felt by the Myanmar public as they witnessed their democratically elected government deposed in an illegal military coup in early 2021 has led to a revolutionary break in Burmese politics. The Bamar Buddhist political elites, formerly silent on the Rohingya Muslim crisis, apologised for failing to administer justice for the Rohingya victims; the coup breathed new life and possibilities into the formation of a federal democracy; and young students and strike leaders dared to challenge the dominance of the elites. However, little is known about whether this struggling together against military dictatorship might enable a broad-based development of solidarity among Myanmar’s traditionally divided ethnic communities. Since many revolutionary communities across Myanmar took to social media to mobilise resistance, studying these groups’ online interactions can provide critical insights to this question. By analysing conversations over the year following the coup on three of the most popular resistance Facebook groups from Bamar and non-Bamar communities, this article finds a two-step process of inter-ethnic solidarity building, driven by both instrumentalist interest and organic empathy. The findings deepen understanding on solidarity building among diverse anti-dictatorship forces, revolution dynamics in post-coup Myanmar, and the role of social media on forging inter-communal empathy.

Exploring theoretical resources for social work from the global south: Latin American critical theory

ABSTRACT This article explores theorisation emerging in Latin America. In the mid-1960s, many social workers in the region were engaged in a ‘reconceptualisation movement’ which – propelled by extraordinary intellectual and political energy – provided the foundation for a reimagining of the profession. Despite the arrival of military dictatorships and neoliberal regimes in many Latin American countries, the movement persisted into the 1980s and it remains a potential source of for the renewal of theory and practice. Alert to the relevance of the philosophical and sociological literature in contemporary Latin America, the article critically articulates the work of writers remaining largely unknown to an Anglo/European social work readership often unduly influenced by U.S. paradigms and preoccupations. These include the more well-known Paulo Freire, but also Anibal Quijano, María Lugones, Walter Mignolo, and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui.

Politicians and Popular Mobilization Against Brazil's Military Dictatorship - Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil's Military Dictatorship. By Bryan Pitts. Oakland: University of California Press, 2023. Pp, 268. $24.95 paper.

Politicians and Popular Mobilization Against Brazil's Military Dictatorship - Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil's Military Dictatorship. By Bryan Pitts. Oakland: University of California Press, 2023. Pp, 268. $24.95 paper.

Myanmar in 2023

In 2023, revolutionary forces made significant gains in an escalating war against an increasingly embattled military dictatorship. Since General Min Aung Hlaing ousted the democratically elected government in a military coup on February 1, 2021, his junta has failed to subdue the countrywide Spring Revolution resisting the military takeover. This is despite the generals’ terror campaign of atrocious violence against the population. In 2021, many outside observers gave the Spring Revolution and the thousands of young people who have taken up arms against the military regime little fighting chance. But these forces have rapidly evolved, and powerful ethnic resistance armies have joined the war against the junta. This article explains how revolutionary war has scaled up, despite a lack of international support and the diversity of revolutionary forces. It also evaluates wider implications for the society, economy, and international relations of a country on the brink of collapse.

Distorted Truth

This work draws a connection between the authoritarian conservatism of the Brazilian military dictatorship and the ideology present during Jair Bolsonaro's administration, while shedding light on the role of the secretive and feared intelligence and repression apparatus in Brazil during the military regime, known as DOI-CODI. It analyzes the autobiographical work "A Verdade Sufocada" by Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, former commander of DOI-CODI, and its influence on contemporary far-right ideology. Additionally, it addresses the media's contribution to the formation of social memory and forgetting, especially concerning Brazil's dictatorial past. The study demonstrates how certain elements of the dictatorship, such as nationalism, conservatism, and persecution of leftist groups, are still present in the ideological movements of the New Right. The analysis offers a critical perspective on Bolsonarism and its legacy stemming from a period of human rights violations and the suppression of democratic freedoms.

New Fascisms and the Crises of Empire: Lessons from the Americas

The 1970s witnessed debates about new fascistic forms of capitalist counterrevolution among militant intellectuals across the world. This article briefly maps some of the Latin American debates over the analytical and political pertinence of the category of fascism as applied to the military dictatorships of that time. It explores competing ideas of dependent fascism, fascism as project, and the counterinsurgent state, while homing in on two crucial lessons of the debate: (1) the centrality accorded to fascism as a historically and geographically specific product of imperialist crises, and (2) the notion that the fascization of the state may serve a transitional function in accelerating and consolidating processes of capitalist restructuring.

Religious Leaders and Resistance to Repression: The Bishops Opposed to Argentina’s Dirty War

Can religious leaders who oppose state violence reduce its use? Communal elites, such as religious leaders, may oppose human rights violations. This article argues that these leaders, part of institutions embedded in local communities and with influence based on traditional power, reduce repression when they oppose dictatorships. The argument's main implication is tested in Argentina during the Dirty War of its 1976-1983 military dictatorship, using original archival data on the country's Catholic bishops. Opposed bishops are associated with reduced disappearances and killings. A variety of evidence is consistent with opposed bishops taking two types of actions to resist repression: assisting likeminded local agents and participating in human rights advocacy campaigns. The findings point to the importance of influential civil society actors in reducing state violence.

“Estar Tranquilo”: Using a Life-course Approach to Explore Perceptions of Well-being among Older Adults in Curicó, Chile

This study assesses perceptions of well-being between two groups of older adults in Curicó, Chile. One group (n=12) were residents of a long-term care center (known as ELEAM), while another group (n=13) were members of two clubs for older adults – Estrellitas del Vaticano (Vatican’s Little Stars) and Club Campo Lindo (Beautiful Countryside) – who lived in their own homes. Data collection consisted of life-story narratives to explore differences in how older adults in different living situations – long-term residential care vs. independent living – define and perceive what it means to be well in older age. Both groups were paired according to the variables of age, educational level, socioeconomic status, and physical status. In this article, I explore how both groups expressed their desire to estar tranquilo or “be peaceful” in their older age; however, each group achieved this state in different ways. ELEAM residents focused on fostering good relationships with fellow residents and maintaining their autonomy. In contrast, club members focused on practicing their religion, maintaining family relationships, and engaging in activities. Although participants shared similar backgrounds and lived through the same historical events (i.e., military dictatorship), their current situations impacted their perceptions of well-being. For individuals to achieve their desired level of well-bing or to estar tranquilo required that they adapt to different living arrangements: club members had to adapt to living without their children, and ELEAM residents to living in an institution.

The Quest for Memory and Truth at the Local Level: University Truth Commissions in Brazil

Abstract: Alongside and in the wake of Brazil's National Truth Commission (2012–2014), local and institutional truth commissions flourished. This article examines one form of those local truth commissions: university truth commission reports. Situating them in the context of both their creation and Brazil's longer history with military rule, it analyzes the ways in which such commissions engage with, reinforce, and challenge national narratives of the military dictatorship of 1964–1985 and the ways in which they contribute new understandings to the military past. In the process, such commissions complicate the collective memory and narratives of military rule while both revealing the limitations of specialized truth commissions yet pointing to the ways in which such commissions can expand understandings of human rights both definitionally and temporally.

NGOs and the Neo-Liberalization of Political Theatre in Pakistan: Ajoka’s Surrender to the Politics of Rights

The neoliberal enterprise of NGOs has transformed the left-leaning politics of the political theatre movement in the Punjab region of Pakistan. Commencing in the 1980s, this theatre acted as a vibrant movement of the Left, challenging the brutal military dictatorship of General Zia. At a later stage, its politics changed to the neoliberal politics of NGOs, giving way to economics and the agenda of international donor organizations of the Global North. This article demonstrates the turn-around of theatre company Ajoka’s recent production Saira aur Miara (2019) and focuses on the production’s politics, together with its text, design, and performance modes in aesthetic terms. A materialist and context-specific political approach examines to what extent class struggle and leftist ideas inform this company’s ideological imaginings and how much it has moved away from its original political position. It indicates the tensions and contradictions that have been created during this change and because of it.

«Myagkaya sila» i publichnaya diplomatiya Brazilii: opyt dlya Rossii?

The article is devoted to the analysis of soft power and public diplomacy of the Federal Republic of Brazil. The object of the study is the resources, instruments and technologies of Brazil's soft power and public diplomacy, the subject is the policy implementation of soft power and public diplomacy of this country. The chronological framework of the study covers the period from Brazil's acquisition of independence in 1822 to L.I. Lula da Silva's winning the elections in 2022. The authors consider the policy of soft power during the periods of the Empire, the First and Second Republics, the era of military dictatorship, as well as during the subsequent democratization up to the current period.

ELIS REGINA'S TRAJECTORY IN BRAZILIAN MUSIC

Elis Regina had a very short and very productive career, being considered today, more than 35 years after her death, one of the greatest Brazilian singers. He lived in a troubled time for artists, of military dictatorship, in which it was very difficult to position himself and to continue his work, in an impartial way. Owner of a strong personality, she was remarkable as a defender of the artistic class and women's rights. His trajectory in Brazilian music is the object of this article that addresses both his technical and scenic development and his maturity from the point of view of behavior and relationship with the media and politics.