Limits to the Militarization of Politics. The Case of Civilian Reactions in Latin America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.espo.n73a08Keywords:
Political Regime, Militarization, Civilian Reaction, Armed Forces, Praetorianism, Latin AmericaAbstract
What are the limits to the processes of militarization of politics? How have they been reversed? What are the characteristics of the next phase? The aim of the article is to analyze the concept of civilian reactions as a limit that has been presented to the militarization of politics in Latin America. The main argument is that civilian reactions have been a response to previous stages of extreme militarization defined in terms of military autonomization of traditional politics. The concept of “civilian reaction” has not been analyzed in the literature on civil-military relations. From a methodological point of view, the article examines in comparative perspective four cases of civilian reactions in different countries and periods: Brazil (1891), Chile (1932), Colombia (1958) and Argentina (1983). To this end, a common process was identified that had three stages: the conditions preceding the extreme militarization, the extreme militarization and the civilian reaction.
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