Kinds of Opposition and Democratic Consolidation: Argentina and Brazil

Abstract

This work describes the attitude of the politica opposition in Argentina and Brazil during the processes of transition and restoration of democracy, according to two variables: the flexibility of the opposition and the type of regime. In the first instance, in the Argentinian case, an outside political opposition stemming from a regime of indiscriminate exclusion is described. Whereas in the Brazilian case, the exclusion is selective on the part of the dictatorship which leads to the creation of conciliatory opposition. It also reviews the difference between both transitions, and how the restoration of democracy varied with the possible institutional consolidation brought about in both regimes.