The Rise and Fall of Repression in Chile

ONE: The Dark Spaces of Politics

3 O N E The Dark Spaces of Politics Ad mala patrata haec sunt atra theatra parata. [Dark theaters are suitable for dark deeds.] A motto of the Papal Inquisition, ca. 1233 Coercion—the threat to employ brute physical force and the actual employment of such force—is central to politics. In a foundation that stretches from Hobbes to Weber, it defines our basic political institutions . But despite its importance, analyzing how various types of coercive institutions operate—and why they differ across time and space—remains difficult. Coercion often takes place in the dark spaces of politics, concealed from public scrutiny. Even in relatively open societies , coercive institutions such as the police and military forces tend to be secretive and mistrustful of any efforts by outsiders to oversee their operations. In more closed societies, such as those ruled by authoritarian regimes, secrecy is the norm, making coercion in these cases that much more difficult to observe and understand. This book is motivated by the conviction that understanding the coercive tyrannies that are common in the dark spaces of politics is both urgent and possible. The urgency is straightforward. Authoritarian regimes have been by far the most successful and common sorts of regimes in history, and recent events in places such as China, Russia, Syria, Belarus , Zimbabwe, Iran, and Pakistan, among many others, show that authoritarianism shows no sign of going into history’s dustbin any time soon. Democracy has made great advances in recent decades, yet by 2007 only 90 of the world’s 192 countries were classified as “free countries” that enjoy the civil liberties and political rights associated with democratic regimes (Freedom House 2008). Authoritarianism is also not 4 The Rise and Fall of Repression in Chile restricted to states. Many if not most armed nonstate groups, including guerrillas, rebel groups, criminal gangs, terrorists, and national liberation movements, are more authoritarian than democratic (Policzer 2006). Such groups routinely exercise de facto, if not de jure, control over large numbers of people and territory. Anyone who cares about the welfare of people forced to live under the tyrannies common in the dark spaces of politics must at some point attempt to understand coercive force, whether employed under authoritarian regimes or by authoritarian nonstate groups. The task of understanding authoritarian coercion is less than straightforward. When secrecy is the norm and dissent regularly punishable by death, information on coercive institutions is not often freely available. But despite such constraints, a surprising amount of information is available on the operations of coercive organizations like the military and police forces under authoritarian regimes. In some cases, independent monitors, such as human rights organizations, have built impressive archives of crimes committed under different dictatorships. In other cases, dictatorships themselves produce and keep records that become available at some future point. It is also possible to learn about authoritarian coercion without discovering a previously untapped archive. Indeed, preexisting information can be analyzed in new ways to shed new light on old problems. For example , all authoritarian rulers face a crucial dilemma regarding coercive institutions like the military and the police. On the one hand, they have to create an organization powerful enough to help them achieve their goals, such as gaining and maintaining power, pursuing their enemies, and controlling the population. On the other hand, the military and police cannot be made so powerful that they threaten—or even depose— the ruler. Authoritarian rulers need to calibrate their need for a powerful coercive apparatus against their interest in self-preservation and maintaining control. A great deal has been written about the (often massive) violence and human rights abuses in various authoritarian regimes, but the dilemma that authoritarian rulers confront in organizing coercion is a fundamental issue of governance that has received little scholarly attention . The Dark Spaces of Politics 5 Asking new questions of familiar data can result in surprising findings .1 For example, authoritarian strongmen often justify their rule with the promise to “get rid of politics” by replacing corrupt or ineffective civilian politicians with a more disciplined cadre.2 But a close look at the organizational dilemma faced by authoritarian rulers belies this justification . At one level coercion in authoritarian regimes might be thought of as the least political of activities precisely because it takes place in the dark spaces of politics, well beyond the scrutiny of overseers such as parliamentary representatives, judicial authorities, and members of civil society...