This article discusses the evolution of the authoritarian regime in Brazil and the reasons for the liberalization that began in 1974, reconstituting the conflicts and dilemmas faced by the military as government. The leaders were seeking to expand the regime’s legitimacy by way of electoral performance when they opted for liberalization, conceived in the wake of a favorable trend in the economy. The liberalization project was conditioned on the institutionalization of a type of post-authoritarian regime with restrictions on democracy and which provided not only for the Armed Forces’ retreat from heading the state, but also for their replacement by a trustworthy civilian arrangement based on the government’s party, so as to preserve the institutional interests of the military corporations.
authoritarian regime; military; iberalization; legitimacy