Memory Policies on the Authoritarian Past and Outcomes for Democracy in Argentina and Brazil

Abstract

In this article, we seek to understand how two countries that experienced, at similar times, authoritarian regimes and fluctuations in their economic performance ended up developing consistently different levels of support for democracy. Our argument is that the different processes of transition to democracy in the two countries produced different institutional arrangements, conditioning reparations and memory policies on authoritarian regimes, as well as dissimilar possibilities for political interference by the armed forces, influencing the contrasting levels of support for democracy. In order to do that, we analysed opinion polls and reconstructed the transition processes as well as the implementation and development of reparation and memory policies about authoritarian regimes. This paper seeks to contribute to the field of research in two ways. First, in terms of discussing the factors that can interfere with adherence to democracy. And secondly, by comparatively addressing the processes of transition to democracy and the long-term repercussions of these processes, such as the recent military influence in Brazilian politics.