ABSTRACT
Traditionally hostile to the Apristas, the Peruvian military frequently banned the populist party or suspended the electoral process altogether. After independence in 1824, Peruvian politics revolved around competing regions and strongmen and was monopolized by military officers. In return for a promise of legalization, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance in 1956 endorsed the Peruvian Democratic movement, a personalist vehicle for conservative former president Manuel Prado, against reformer Fernando Belaunde's middleclass Popular Action party. Between 1968 and 1975 the Peruvian armed forces pursued the most ambitious program of military reformism ever attempted in Latin America. Public opinion in the aftermath of military rule is difficult to determine with any precision because of the underdeveloped state of survey research in Peru. From the election of Manuel Pardo in 1872 to the beginning of the 1919-1930 dictatorship of Augusto Leguia, the aristocratic Civilistas were Peru's most influential political group.
