The line of explanation is different from Alavi’s. It examines dependent
societies where the process of modernization has not led to the gradual
enrichment of mass politics but to the collapse of political systems in which
the working classes and lower-middle classes were important participants
in, and beneficiaries of, the dominant coalitions. Populist politics, notably
in Argentina under Peron, produce movements that seek mass support to
maintain an élite rather than promote an ideological position. It is a form of
politics in which the masses can engage and acquire influence and benefits.
The important question is why populism so often degenerates into repres-
sive authoritarianism, often of a military character, and the regressive redis-
tribution of wealth in favour of the economically privileged. More advanced
levels of industrialization, growing GNP per capita and other aspects of eco-
nomic development are linked to a reversal from democratic competitive
politics and an increase in inequality.
O’Donnell (1979) compared Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and
Mexico, identifying an underlying common historical sequence starting with
oligarchical political systems in which power, both economic and political,
is held by a small number of families. This is then followed by a phase of
populist politics eventually degenerating into bureaucratic-authoritarianism.
Three factors in ‘constellation’ are said to account for the stage reached by
any particular country: regime, coalition, and policies. By regimeis meant
the existence of civil rights, freedoms, electoral competition, and organized
interests – compared with repression, intimidation, gerrymandering, ballot-
rigging and the other practices which undermine and destroy the democratic
process.Coalitionrefers to the class and sectoral composition of the domi-
nant political group. Policiesrefers to the distribution of resources among
different classes and sectors of the economy. Each constellation is seen as the
result of relationships between three key aspects of socio-economic modern-
ization: levels of industrialization; levels of political activism among the
lower classes (or what is rather confusingly called the ‘popular sector’); and
the growth of technocratic occupations in both the public and private sectors.
Constellations of regime, coalition and policies reflect constellations of
levels of industrialization, activism and technocracy.
Bureaucratic-authoritarianism is characterized by a regimein which elec-
toral competition is eliminated and other forms of political participation are
closely controlled by the authorities; a coalitionof high level military and
civil technocrats working with representatives of foreign capital; and a pol-
icyof promoting advanced industrialization.
This particular kind of political system is interpreted as a reaction to
problems associated with a particular phase of import-substitution policy.
This phase is brought to an end by the lack of a domestic market to support
122 Understanding Third World Politics