#28 A Decade of Military Policy Making in Peru, 1968-1977
By Peter S. Cleaves
This paper was presented at the November 2-4, 1978 Workshop on "The Peruvian Experiment Reconsidered" organized by the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Summary
Policymaking in authoritarian regimes takes place within a smaller circle of governing elites and is characterized by greater secrecy than in institutional democracies. Nevertheless, the authoritarian executive must abide by similar rules when designing policy: maintain the governing coalition intact and mediate pressures from relevant social groups. Authoritarian leaders may find it to their advantage to open up the policymaking process either by calling upon bureaucratic expertise located within the state apparatus or soliciting the advice of class spokesmen. These tactics help improve the policy's technical features before promulgation and enhance its acceptance afterwards. This study of policymaking in Peru examines President Velasco Alvarado's skillful management of a revolutionary polity that defied usual limits on state autonomy. The Velasco regime (1968-1975) utilized an image of a unified armed forces and the policymaking process itself to advance reforms that had little objective basis of support, a fact that explains their reversal under Morales Bermudez (1975-1980).
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