ABSTRACT
The emergence of a “new style” of military regime in several Latin American countries during the last two decades has engendered abundant literature in the social sciences. The term political regime is understood to mean a system of mediations between the state and civil society. The character of vehicles or carriers of a historical project defines what can be called the foundational or “revolutionary” logic or dynamic of the authoritarian regimes. The evolution or dynamic of an authoritarian political regime expresses the original or basic contradiction activated by opposition forces between the exclusionary and unbalancing character of a project for capitalist restructuring and dependent reinsertion in an established world system. The viability of the regime must be distinguished from the viability of social domination, that is, from the capacity of the dominant bloc to sustain its power beyond the openings and the erosion of the authoritarian path.
