ABSTRACT
Beginning with the decision of the Brazilian military to end by force the regime of Joao Goulart in 1964 and to impose its own style of governance over a vast country, authoritarianism has been on the rise throughout Latin America. A new departure in Latin American politics has accompanied this rise in the number of military governments: the determination of the military as an institution to retain power on the grounds that it possesses a far greater capability than civilian forces to cope with the issues of continued socioeconomic change and the political activation of the lower sectors of society in urban and rural areas. In seeking to attain simultaneously the illusive goals of sustained economic growth, regulated social change, and political order, junior and senior officers have increasingly turned to representatives of their own industrial communities and new middle-class professionals with training in economics and the management sciences for advice and assistance.
