Book Review, Puzzling over Authoritarian Legality

:::::: Book Review ::::::

Puzzling over Authoritarian Legality
by Cliff Welch

Political (In)justice: Authoritarianism and the Rule of Law in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina

Pereira Anthony W. Political (In)justice: Authoritarianism and the Rule of Law in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.

While many democracies have witnessed dramatic declines in both voter enthusiasm for political participation and the appeal of the state as the unique focus of transformational political projects, many governments around the world have gradually become more authoritarian and closed, aggravating the cynicism of the citizenry. Pereira’s Political (In)justice offers an indirect antidote to these trends by examining the devil itself in the comparative details of the rise and fall of three Latin American authoritarian regimes. While Pereira’s principal concern is the relationship between rulers and ruled, this book examines rulers. The work of Weber anchors its theoretical approach to examining differences and similarities in the ways elites used the law to rule the masses in the dictatorships of Brazil (1964–1985), Chile (1973–1990), and Argentina (1976–1983). By carefully analyzing the paradox of authoritarian legality in the Southern Cone, Pereira’s book offers many historical and political clues for solving the puzzle of institutionalized authoritarianism and what makes governments function and states important enough to fight over.







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