The Military And The State In Latin America

After a long era of military rule, the South American nations have been working on the construction of a new democratic order. This book provides a long-term historical assessment of the main features of civil-military relations in this region, from independence in the early nineteenth century to the current process of democratic consolidation, with special attention to the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru.

Latin America is moving toward democracy. The region's countries hold elections, choose leaders, and form new governments. But is the civilian government firmly in power? Or is the military still influencing policy and holding the elected politicians in check under the guise of guarding against corruption, instability, economic uncertainty, and other excesses of democracy? The editors of this work, Brian Loveman and Thomas M. Davies, Jr., argue that with or without direct military rule, antipolitics persists as a foundation of Latin American politics. This study examines the origins of antipolitics, traces its nineteenth- and twentieth-century history, and focuses on the years from 1965 to 1995 to emphasize the somewhat illusory transitions to democracy. This third edition of The Politics of Antipolitics has been revised and updated to focus on the post-Cold War era. With the demise of the Soviet state and international Marxism, the Latin American military has appropriated new threats including narcoterrorism, environmental exploitation, technology transfer, and even AIDS to redefine and relegitimate its role in social, economic, and political policy. The editors also address why and how the military rulers acceded to the return of civilian-elected governments and the military's defense against accusations of human rights abuses.

Recent years have given rise to an intense debate about the boundaries and appropriate missions of Latin America's armed forces. This report examines the efforts of civilian leaders in Latin America to identify missions for their militaries appropriate to both the security environment of the post-Cold War era and to civil-military relations in a democracy, and to provide ways militaries will effectively adopt these missions. It also analyses the implications for democracy and civilian control of specific roles for the armed forces that are either under consideration or already underway in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.

Defending 'la patria,' or 'homeland,' is the historical mission claimed by Latin American armed forces. For la Patria is a comprehensive narrative history of the military's political role in Latin America in national defense and security. Latin American civil-military relations and the role of the armed forces in politics, like those of all modern nation-states, are framed by constitutional and legal norms specifying the formal relationships between the armed forces and the rest of society. In actuality, they are also the result of expectations, attitudes, values, and practices evolved over centuries-integral aspects of national political cultures. Military institutions in each Latin American nation have resulted from that country's own blend of local and imported influences, developing a distinctive pattern of civil-military relations as defender of the fatherland and guarantor of security and order. Written by Latin American specialist Brian Loveman, For la Patria includes tables, maps, photographs, and a glossary that will assist the student in better understanding the military's intervention in politics in Latin America. This new text will give students a thorough and accessible history of Latin American armed forces and their actions in Latin American politics from colonial times to the present.

What role does war play in political development? Our understanding of the rise of the nation-state is based heavily on the Western European experience of war. Challenging the dominance of this model, Blood and Debt looks at Latin America's much different experience as more relevant to politics today in regions as varied as the Balkans and sub-Saharan Africa. The book's illuminating review of the relatively peaceful history of Latin America from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries reveals the lack of two critical prerequisites needed for war: a political and military culture oriented toward international violence, and the state institutional capacity to carry it out. Using innovative new data such as tax receipts, naming of streets and public monuments, and conscription records, the author carefully examines how war affected the fiscal development of the state, the creation of national identity, and claims to citizenship. Rather than building nation-states and fostering democratic citizenship, he shows, war in Latin America destroyed institutions, confirmed internal divisions, and killed many without purpose or glory.

The armed forces may no longer rule nations throughout Latin America, but they continue to influence democratic governments across the region. In nine original, thought-provoking essays, this book offers fresh theoretical insights into the dilemmas facing Latin American politicians as they struggle to gain full control over their military institutions. Latin America has changed in profound ways since the end of the Cold War, the re-emergence of democracy, and the ascendancy of free-market economies and trade blocs. The contributors to this volume recognize the necessity of finding intellectual approaches that speak to these transformations. They utilize a wide range of contemporary models to analyze recent political and economic reform in nations throughout Latin America, presenting case studies on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, and Venezuela. Bridging the gap between Latin American studies and political science, these essays not only explore the forces that shape civil-military relations in Latin America but also address larger questions of political development and democratization in the region. The contributors are Felipe Aguero, J. Samuel Fitch, Wendy Hunter, Ernesto Lopez, Brian Loveman, David R. Mares, Deborah L. Norden, David Pion-Berlin, and Harold A. Trinkunas. Latin American Studies/Political Science