Pablo Policzer is assistant professor in political science and Canada Research Chair in Latin American Politics at the University of Calgary.
“An important and well-crafted book, The Rise and Fall of
Repression in Chile makes a valuable contribution to the
literatures on comparative politics, authoritarian repression,
democratic transitions, and recent Chilean politics. Policzer
admirably succeeds in offering an original argument about the
nature of authoritarian coercion while also changing our perception
of the dynamics of the Pinochet regime." —Anthony W. Pereira,
Tulane University
“Pablo Policzer opens up the black box of the Pinochet regime and
reveals the complex internal politics surrounding how the regime
used and sought to regulate repression. We know too little about
the internal workings of authoritarian regimes, and Policzer's book
shows us not only how principal-agent problems led to a fundamental
reorganization of repression, but also the unpredictable ways in
which human rights monitoring shaped struggles within the state
over the management of repression. This is path-breaking work and a
must-read for students of authoritarianism." —William Stanley,
University of New Mexico
“Pablo Policzer analyzes how authoritarian regimes utilize coercion
in The Rise and Fall of Repression in Chile. The book sheds new
light on the early Chilean dictatorship, especially the period in
the late 70s when the junta quietly replaced its infamous secret
police organization (DINA).” —Kellogg Institute Newsletter
“Acknowledging that coercion is one of the dark spaces of politics,
Policzer aims to illuminate the ways in which authoritarian regimes
organize their institutions, as well as the causes and consequences
of their choices. . . . Policzer’s analysis casts the Pinochet
dictatorship in a new light, illustrating how Pinochet faced
various trade-offs in organizing his coercive apparatus.”
—Choice
“Taking the Pinochet regime in Chile as a case study, Policzer
develops a framework within which to clarify the different ways
coercive force can be organized in different regimes and at
different points in time. He focuses on how in 1977-78 the dictator
replaced the most powerful repressive institution in the country,
the DINA, with the CNI. . . ” —Reference and Research Book News
“Between 1977 and 1978 the governing junta in Chile replaced the
secret police organization known as the Dirección de Inteligencia
Nacional (DINA) with a different institution, the Central Nacional
de Informaciones (CNI). Policzer’s study seeks to account for the
creation of DINA, its rise to become the most powerful repressive
institution in the country, and its sudden replacement with the
CNI, which carried out repression in a markedly more restrained
manner.” —Law & Social Inquiry
“This important book enriches the literature on authoritarian
regimes by asking what factors and specific mechanisms explain the
changes in the organization of coercion under such regimes. This is
a significant book because it poses new questions and delivers new
theoretical tools to explore this new region of problematization.”
—Latin American Politics and Society
“. . .repression is often understood in terms of relatively simple
explanatory schemes: ideological zeal, domestic power arrangements,
and international political pressure. In this new book, Pablo
Policzer seeks to expose the inadequacies of such explanations and
to offer an alternative approach for explaining and understanding
political repression. . . . this work is original and
thought-provoking, and offers a valuable contribution to the
history of the Pinochet regime. It is certainly a stepping stone
for new research in the field of political repression.” —Canadian
Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Studies
"Policzer's main thesis is that political repression is a more
complex and multifaceted process than has been assumed. This is an
original contribution that raises as many questions as it answers."
—Latin American Perspectives
“Pablo Policzer’s The Rise and Fall of Repression in Chile is one
of the few existing studies of coercive institutions, and shows
that repressing a society is a much more complicated organizational
endeavor than is usually assumed.” —Journal of Comparative Politics
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