Any dictatorship is a monocracy, which in the most important aspects of the political self-organization of society is the antipode of democracy. Military Dictatorship or Militocracy is a form of government in which the military holds all power, usually taken over by a coup d’état. Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East are vast zones for the spread of military dictatorships.
One reason is that the military often has more cohesion and a better organizational structure than the civilian institutions of society, which is characteristic of developing countries prone to coups d’état. Military regimes also tend to present themselves as a “neutral” party that can provide temporary leadership in troubled times. One of the almost universal characteristics of military government is the institution of a martial or permanent state of emergency, which abolishes all legal safeguards protecting people from abuse by the state. Military regimes generally have no regard for human rights and use force and repression to silence dissidents and political opponents.
Example of a Military Dictatorship government system
On April 1, 1964, the military overthrew the president of Brazil, and the largest country in Latin America was at its mercy for two decades. At the time of the coup, an economic and political crisis was raging in Brazil. Inflation had reached double digits, the population was impoverished, and the right wing accused the president of having a Communist bent. The military promised to resolve all issues in a short time and thus gained the support of most politicians. The left did not recognize the results of the coup, and the trade unions even called for a general strike. But there was no serious resistance. The military immediately cleared the political field, dissolved Congress, and banned political parties.
At the same time, they managed to attract competent civilian specialists to run the economy, which boosted the economy for a short time. From the mid-1970s, the regime gradually softened. And the final blow to the dictatorship, strange as it may sound, was the economic success. In 1985, the army returned to its barracks, and the generals agreed to a transition of power to a civilian government. The final transfer of power to the opposition took place almost ten years later.
Unlike the Brazilians, the leftist Peruvian and rightist Bolivian juntas were economically a disappointment. Poverty, crises, and later massacres of peasants, workers, and the urban poor completed the picture.
