Beyond Electoral Authoritarianism in Transitional Myanmar

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Farrelly
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political System ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Electoral Authoritarianism ◽  
The Military ◽  
Transitional System

This article reassesses notions of ‘electoral authoritarianism’ as applied to the changed political terrain in Myanmar. It examines the various mechanisms through which the lingering influences of earlier political contestation are being integrated into transitional Myanmar’s public and social life. While the evolving Myanmar system is inevitably informed by the dictatorial experience there is a new effort to embrace counter-currents in the shift away from long-term military rule. The argument is that the transitional system mobilises key elements and personnel from the dictatorial period alongside growing opportunities for those who most actively opposed the military dictatorship, including in the pivotal 1988 period. The paradox of political culture under these arrangements means that the notion of a stable electorally authoritarian model needs careful reappraisal. Such stability has been replaced by an appreciation that incremental liberalisation and gradually increasing participation can help to change an entrenched political order. The efforts of the transitional government (2011 to 2015) to implement changes to the economy, the political system and the wider social situation have ensured that creeping reform has become the new norm in a post-authoritarian system where compromise had previously been hard to find.

To ‘midwife’ – and abort – a democracy: Mauritania's transition from military rule, 2005–2008

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boubacar N'Diaye
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political System ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Electoral Outcomes ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

ABSTRACTThe 3 August 2005 military coup was Mauritania's best opportunity to turn the page on decades of the deposed quasi-military regime's destructive politics. This article critically analyses relevant aspects of the transition that ensued in the context of the prevailing models of military withdrawal from politics in Africa. It also examines the challenges that Mauritania's short-lived Third Republic faced. It argues that the transition process did not escape the well-known African military junta leader's proclivity to manipulate transitions to fulfil suddenly awakened self-seeking political ambitions, in violation of solemn promises. While there was no old-fashioned ballot stuffing to decide electoral outcomes, Mauritania's junta leader and his lieutenants spared no effort to keep the military very much involved in politics, and to perpetuate a strong sense of entitlement to political power. Originally designed as an ingenious ‘delayed self-succession’ of sorts, in the end, another coup aborted Mauritania's democratisation process and threw its institutions in a tailspin. This only exacerbated the challenges that have saddled Mauritania's political system and society for decades – unhealthy civil-military relations, a dismal ‘human rights deficit’, terrorism, and a neo-patrimonial, disastrously mismanaged economy.

The legacy of military dictatorship: Explaining violent crime in democracies

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 404-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Frantz
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Homicide Rates ◽  
The Military ◽  
Cross National

Violent crime rates have increased dramatically in many parts of the world in recent decades, with homicides now outpacing deaths due to interstate or civil wars. Considerable variations exist across democracies in their violent crime rates, however: different autocratic experiences help explain why this is the case. Democracies emerging from military rule have higher homicide rates because they typically inherit militarized police forces. This creates a dilemma after democratization: allowing the military to remain in the police leads to law enforcement personnel trained in defense rather than policing, but extricating it marginalizes individuals trained in the use of violence. The results of cross-national statistical tests are shown to be consistent with this argument.

Neutralising the Use of Force in Uganda: the Rôle of the Military in Politics

1995 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. A. Brett
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political System ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
The Military

Bullets rather than ballots have dominated politics in Uganda since independence, where two governments have been removed by coups, one by a foreign invasion, and another by an armed rebellion. Force has not only dominated the formal political system, but also threatened the economic and social basis on which democratic processes and progressive development depends. For 25 years predatory military rule and civil war have destroyed lives, skills, and assets, undermined institutional competence and accountability, caused widespread per sonal trauma, suppressed autonomous organisations in civil society, and intensified ethnic hostility and conflict. And Uganda is not alone in this – the middle of the twentieth century was dominated by fascism and war, while sectarian or ethnic conflicts in Bosnia, Ulster, Sri Lanka, Somalia, the Sudan, Angola, Liberia, Zaï, Burundi, and Rwanda have inflicted untold damage on people and property.1

The Military Institution Revisited: Some Notes on Corporatism and Military Rule in Latin America

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Philip
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Military Institution ◽  
The Military

Does political science advance or do fashions merely change? There can be no doubt that this past decade has seen a major change in the ways in which the nature of military rule in Latin America has been examined. To a large extent, this has been due to changes in the nature of Latin American governments themselves and, more particularly, to the emergence of the long term military-bureaucratic (sometimes called bureaucratic-authotitarian) government.

Socjalizacja i edukacja polityczna, jako ważne determinanty kultury politycznej

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (16) ◽  
pp. 31-51
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Piwnicki
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of

It is recognized that politics is a part of social life, that is why it is also a part of culture. In this the political culture became in the second half of the twentieth century the subject of analyzes of the political scientists in the world and in Poland. In connection with this, political culture was perceived as a component of culture in the literal sense through the prism of all material and non-material creations of the social life. It has become an incentive to expand the definition of the political culture with such components as the political institutions and the system of socialization and political education. The aim of this was to strengthen the democratic political system by shifting from individual to general social elements.

scholarly journals The Search for an Exit from the Dictatorship and the Transformation of Greek Conservatism, 1967-1974

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Sotiris Rizas
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Political System ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Political Class ◽  
The Military ◽  
A Current

The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of transformation of Greek conservatism that evolved during the dictatorship from a current identified with the restrictive practices of the post-Civil War political system to a tenet of the democratic regime established in 1974. The realization that the military coup was not just the manifestation of anti-communism, the dominant ideology of the post-Civil War period, but also of an anti-parliamentary spirit permeating the armed forces, the prolongation of military rule that led to the crystallization of differences between the military regime and the conservative political class and an apprehension that the dictatorship might fuel uncontrollable social and political polarization are three inter-related factors that explain this transformation.

Between Scylla and Charybdis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ozan O. Varol
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Civilian Control ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
The Military ◽  
Better Than

Following most democratic coups, the military manages to secure exit benefits, which, depending on their degree, may foster various dysfunctions in the political system and undermine long-term democratic development. The dose determines the toxicity. A democratic regime can mature even with prerogatives for the military, as long as those prerogatives don’t interfere with democratic notions of civilian control of the armed forces. Although these prerogatives are often undesirable from civilians’ perspective, any attempts by civilians to immediately march the military back to the barracks empty-handed can prompt a backlash from the military leaders. They may dig in, rather than give in, and derail the transition process. And from civilians’ perspective, the military’s exit with benefits is often better than no exit at all.

scholarly journals Civilianization of Military Rule in Pakistan: A Study of Musharrafs Era (2005-2008)

2020 ◽  
Vol V (I) ◽  
pp. 450-457
Author(s):  
Sughra Alam ◽  
Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti ◽  
Asia Saif Alvi
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
The Military

The Military s involvement in the political system of Pakistan began from the mid-1950s and continued verily as a guardian, a praetorian, or ruler on various occasions. Its disengagement, after the direct intervention, remained usually slow and gradual. Hence, it took a long time for disengagement and created a power-sharing model instead of transferring power to the civilian elite. The pattern of civilianization adopted by the Ayub Khan and Zia-ul-Haq was also adopted by the Musharraf regime with few changes. In his early days, though, General Pervaiz Musharraf demonstrated intention for economic revival, accountability, devolution of power, and democratic consolidation as his foremost goals and took some steps towards that direction but he abruptly reversed those steps when he sensed a threat to his dominating position in a self-created system. This paper is an attempt to critically analyze the process of civilianization during the period under consideration based on the theoretical framework and practical norms of the democratic system.

Personalization and Institutional Constraints: Pinochet, the Military Junta, and the 1980 Constitution

2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Barros
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Standard Account ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Personal Power ◽  
Military Junta ◽  
The Military

AbstractThe standard account of military dictatorship in Chile (1973–1990) portrays the case as a personalist regime, and uses the dynamics associated with this type of regime to explain General Pinochet's control of the presidency, the enactment of the 1980 Constitution, and the longevity of military rule. Drawing on records of the decisionmaking process within the military junta, this article presents evidence for a different characterization of the dictatorship. It shows that Pinochet never attained the supremacy commonly attributed to him, that the commanders of the other branches of the armed forces retained significant powers, and that the 1980 Constitution was not enacted to project Pinochet's personal power. More generally, this study suggests that personal power is not a necessary condition for regime longevity; collective systems can also produce cohesion and stability.

scholarly journals LOS ARGUMENTOS LIBERALES Y REPUBLICANOS EN TORNO A LA LEY DE CADUCIDAD EN URUGUAY: UNA MIRADA DESDE LA POSICIÓN DE LOS ACTORES DEL SISTEMA POLÍTICO

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Martín Freigedo Peláez
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political System ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
The Military

En su mayoría, los crímenes contra los derechos humanos cometidos por el Estado uruguayo en el período previo a la dictadura cívico-militar, y durante la misma, aún están impunes. Esto es consecuencia, en parte, de la aprobación en 1986 de la ley de Caducidad Punitiva del Estado, que limita al Poder Judicial a intervenir sobre estos. Sin embargo, las discusiones políticas en torno a las violaciones de los derechos humanos están latentes y son parte de un proceso que todavía no tiene un punto final. En este sentido, las posiciones de los actores del sistema político han sido muy disímiles y han cambiado según la coyuntura política del país. En este artículo se presentan las posiciones liberales y republicanas de dichos actores para argumentar sus posturas en torno a la vieja discusión teórica sobre los derechos humanos y la soberanía popular. The liberal and republican arguments about the Law on the Expiration of the Punitive Claims of the State: a look from the position of the actors in the political systemAbstract                                                 Most of the crimes against human rights committed by the Uruguayan government during the military dictatorship period remain unpunished. This is due in part, by the adoption in 1986 of Law on the Expiration of the Punitive Claims of the State, limiting the judiciary to intervene over such crimes. However, policy discussions about the violations of human rights are still present and far from an endpoint. The actors of the political system have taken very different positions over this matter with changes according to the political situation of the country. In this article, we present the liberal and republican positions of these actors to argue their attitude towards the old theoretical discussion of human rights and popular sovereignty. 

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