Civilian Praetorianism and Military Shirking during Constitutional Crises in Latin America (original) (raw)

Democratization, social crisis and the impact of military domestic roles in Latin America

Journal of political and military sociology, 2005

Résumé/Abstract Civil-militaly relations theorists have long warned against the participation of armed forces in domestic missions in democratic societies. They argue that such domestic roles bolster the military politically and eventually lead to the overthrow of democratic governments. Yet for two decades now, democratic governments have enlisted the help of their militaries domestically without risk to the regime. Civilian leaders often provide the military with internal roles to compensate for the inability of the state to provide the public ...

Explaining military responses to protests in Latin American Democracies

Comparative Politics, 2022

Social protests are a feature of democracy in Latin America. When the police cannot handle them, governments, facing threats to their tenure, are tempted to order the armed forces to step in. The military, when ordered to deploy in counter-protest operations, exhibits behaviors ranging from defiance to conditional and full compliance. The article investigates the sources of variation in military responses to mass protests, leveraging a small-n comparative analysis and a diverse case selection strategy. It draws on qualitative evidence from Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, democracies with a history of protests. It finds that a combination of the judicial risks soldiers assume if they repress, professional mission preferences, and social identity between the military and the protesters are the most compelling explanations for military responses.

Democratic Transitions and the Latin American Military

Arab Reform Initiative, 2011

One of the main challenges to democratic state building processes in Latin America has been the enforcement of civilian control over the military. The introduction of a reform agenda for the armed services has been particularly critical for democratic forces in transitional periods. This process was delayed by the everlasting military reluctance to civilian democratic control and by the traditional disregard of military issues by democratizing coalitions. Several studies 1 have been trying to establish the main reasons why it has been so difficult to reach "civilian supremacy" 2 and why military services are so reluctant to democratic government control, railing against key institutional reforms. The accumulated evidence shows that this reaction is the product of a singular combination of peculiar institutional traits and developments that differentiate military institutions from other state and civilian organizations, coupled with idiosyncratic national cultural and political conditions. In this paper I will present and analyze the key elements that have been facilitating or preventing democratically oriented institutional changes inside the military in Latin America. The reception of a democratic reform agenda inside the barracks, advocated by a decisive civilian leadership, has been conditioned by the nature of the military institutions, their type of relationship with the rest of society, their level of autonomy, the existence or lack of a solid political and substantive leadership, and the changing set of their international influences. I will conclude with five action-oriented recommendations derived from this experience.

Coups d'état, democracy in Latin America and its challenges

Kartepe Zirvesi 2017, 2017

This paper pretends to analyze and reflect about democracy, its threats and coups d’état in Latin America, in the light of the events in July 2016 in the Republic of Turkey. It looks for elements in order to understand how one of the most troubled region in the world could overcome a coup d’état history. If the XX century was the narrow period because of the regular interruption of the political processes, it was also an interesting moment of the Latin American history. After recovering democracy, graves social, political and economic consequences emerge in the region. Since a few decades, Latin America is walking towards its democratic consolidation, with an active civil society, but with threats to its institutional arrangement.

With the hands on the wheel: how transitions in Latin America have been influenced by the Armed Forces and possible paths forward

Conferencia ISA-LAC y Redintercol, 2023

In order to be established, transitions after conflicts or authoritarian regimes in Latin America often settled agreements that authorized, through the discourse of reconciliation, the non-trial of the military branch for human rights violations. This article seeks to verify how in the experiences of regime change, mainly from countries that participated in the Condor Plan, have "required" or not, in order to be implemented, the militarization of civil instruments, such as amnesty laws. There is an apparent pattern that, for the return of civilian power, there must be also a return of the military to their shelter without being punished. Far from being antipunitivist, the democratic framework takes place in the absence of civil society itself, since the authoritarian military activities are only ceased by its own will (which apparently can return at any time), aiming at its privileged permanence on the State structure.

A new civil-military pragmatism in Latin America

2003

The Latin American armed forces find themselves squeezed between two conflicting forces in Latin America. The first is regional in nature. It is the assemblage of diplomatic organizations and treaties, and multilateral and bilateral trade and investment agreements that have posed limits on military influence in politics. Combined these efforts have lowered the ceiling on military intervention, rendering coup attempts short-lived or non-existent. The second is domestic in nature. Democracies are under stress.

Military autonomy and emerging democracies in South America

Comparative Politics, 1992

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