Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America: Dictators, Despots, and Tyrants by Paul H. Lewis (review)

The Latin Americanist, Spring 2007 endeared themselves to influential segments of the population. Levinson’saccount also describes a number of American strategic failures. General Scott employed brutal tactics during the bombardment of Veracruz, when he refused to “allow a one-day truce to evacuate civilians“ in order to keep to his tight schedule (29). Levinson concludes that U.S. policies such as this yielded short-term tactical benefitsbut put the United Statesat a long-term strategic disadvantage by souring relations with civilians and galvanizing resistance in unconquered towns along the Veracruz-MexicoCity supply line (31).Indeed, this supply line later proved to be the most difficult area to defend due to guerilla uprisings. The punitive, counter-guerilla tactics the United States army adopted to combat these uprisings -the destruction of villages, the execution of captured partisans, and collective financial punishments imposed upon municipalities -were largely ineffective in curbing the attacks by dedicated Mexican guerillas (68-69). In fact, the light corps’ prolonged resistance helped convince American statesmen and generals that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was preferable to seizing all of the Mexican territory north of the 26thparallel, as long as it ended the difficult occupation (107). What makes Levinson’sarguments so convincing is his thorough research. A detailed set of endnotes provides a meticulous description of the many sources from which Levinson derived his analysis. Levinson also includes a bibliography, a bibliographic essay that recounts the evolution of scholarship related to the Mexican American War, and several useful tables with highly relevant statistics. While Levinson’s scholarship is top-notch, his style of writing is much less intimate or gripping than many other writers of history. Still, his prosaic account is clear and possesses the sobriety that other scholars should strive for. Not only does Levinson accurately describe many of the social cleavages that plagued the Mexican State, but he also reminds us of the immeasurable importance of politics in warfare. Wars Within War compels us to consider the circumstances under which it is advisable to crush the enemy-as Scott attempted to do in Veracruz-and under which conditions a gentler strategy that manipulates social and political factors might be advisable to prevent long-term guerilla resistance. Levinson’s account indicates that the expedient strategy is sometimes the compassionate one. Benjamin L. Hymnn School of Advanced International Studies JohnsHopkins University AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES IN LATIN AMERICA: DICTATORS, DESPOTS, AND TYRANTS. BYPAUL H. LEWIS. LANHAM, MD: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD, 2005, P. 272, $26.95. Authoritarianism has a ubiquitous presence in Latin American politics. In Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America, Paul H. Lewis explains the genesis of 6 Book Reviews Latin America‘s authoritarian political culture and its subsequent historical manifestations in diverse regime types. Lewis, emeritus professor of political science at Tulane University, describes how Latin America’s authoritarian political ethos has been and continues to be reflected in a variety of regimes, from early nineteenth-century regional caudillos, to personalist national dictators or oligarchic machines, to mass-movement regimes like Fidel Castro’sCuba or JuanPeron’s Argentina, and finally to contemporary ”hyperpresidential ” governments. Lewis’s explanation of Latin America’s ”undemocratic culture” begins in the Iberian Peninsula. The hierarchical and authoritarian social and political order that emerged in the wake of the Christian reconquest of the peninsula was extended throughout the Americas during the colonial era. The Spanish Empire severely restricted colonial elite involvement in governance. Only modest opportunity existed for autonomous political action through municipal councils, which became the oligarchic realms of wealthy colonial families. Following the independence of the Spanish-American mainland during the first two decades of the nineteenth century, the large landed estates that had reinforced the colonial hierarchy became the foundations of a new caudillo-led authoritarian politics. Local caudillos incessantly skirmished amongst themselves, as the former empire splintered into smaller nations. After describing the turmoil of the caudillo era, Lewis devotes a chapter to three Latin American countries that avoided chaos. Dr. Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia’s twenty-six year nationalist dictatorship maintained stability in Paraguay from 1814to 1840.In Chile, Diego Portales subordinated the military to civilian rule and created an institutional order based on the established landowning elites. King Jo50 VI...