Why do attempts by authoritarian regimes to legalize their political repression differ so dramatically? Why do some dispense with the law altogether, while others scrupulously modify constitutions, pass new laws, and organize political trials?<i>Political (In)Justice</i> answers these questions by comparing the legal aspects of political repression in three recent military regimes: Brazil (1964-1985); Chile (1973-1990); and Argentina (1976-1983). By focusing on political trials as a reflection of each regime's overall approach to the law, Anthony Pereira argues that the practice of each regime can be explained by examining the long-term relationship between the judiciary and the military. Brazil was marked by a high degree of judicial-military integration and cooperation; Chile's military essentially usurped judicial authority; and in Argentina, the military negated the judiciary altogether. Pereira extends the judicial-military framework to other authoritarian regimes—Salazar's Portugal, Hitler's Germany, and Franco's Spain—and a democracy (the United States), to illuminate historical and contemporary aspects of state coercion and the rule of law.

Anthony W. Pereira is associate professor of political science at Tulane University. He is the author ofThe End of Peasantry: The Emergence of the Rural Trade Union Movement in Northeast Brazil, 1961Ð1988, and coeditor ofIrregular Armed Forces and Their Role in Politics and State Formation.