Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hicks, Barbara

Area of Concentration

Political Science, International and Area Studies, Spanish Language and Culture

Abstract

Transitions to democracy have always been complicated processes with various facets that must be analyzed to determine their causes, durations, and outcomes. This research project examines the transition processes of four countries in South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. These countries all transitioned from military regimes to democracy in the latter half of the 1980s and have since attempted to consolidate democracy. This study seeks to determine whether a sudden removal of the armed forces from governmental positions or a gradual removal of officers during the transition process promotes democratic consolidation more effectively. Each case study traces the structure of the military regimes, the transfer of power, the transition process, and the democratic consolidation process to determine the effects that the timing of the removal of military officials can have on consolidation. After comparing all four case studies, it was evident that the timing of the removal of officers had no systematic effects on the consolidation process. However, the existence of a strict military hierarchy before the transfer of power from the military government to civilian officials did have a positive effect on democratization. In comparison to cases where the military was fragmented and had a nonhierarchical structure, the countries that had hierarchical militaries today have higher scores on the democracy index. It can be inferred that transferring power from military regimes with strict hierarchical structures may lead to the development of a more unified state and a more stable political arena because these regimes are able to make credible commitments during the transfer that may facilitate the consolidation of democracy. Due to the varied interests of factions within a fragmented regime, nonhierarchical military governments are unable to create pacts with representatives of the new democratic government during the transition, because the military government cannot decide on a unified platform for its removal. The cleavages present in the military regimes seem to continue into the democratization process of these countries, often causing political polarization that delays full democratic consolidation.

Rights

The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.

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