It is widely believed that autocratic regimes cannot limit their power through institutions of their own making. This book presents a surprising challenge to this view. It demonstrates that the Chilean armed forces were constrained by institutions of their own design. Based on extensive documentation of military decision-making, much of it long classified and unavailable, this book reconstructs the politics of institutions within the recent Chilean dictatorship (1973–1990). It examines the structuring of institutions at the apex of the military junta, the relationship of military rule with the prior constitution, the intra-military conflicts that led to the promulgation of the 1980 constitution, the logic of institutions contained in the new constitution, and how the constitution constrained the military junta after it went into force in 1981. This provocative account reveals the standard account of the dictatorship as a personalist regime with power concentrated in Pinochet to be grossly inaccurate.

' … interesting and well-written … The book is highly recommendable. His work significantly advances our knowledge of a decisive period in Chile's most recent history. He corrects generally held interpretations of the dictatorship …'.

Source: Iberoamericana

'… an important contribution to debates about what happened in Chile under Pinochet, and raises new issues about the nature of absolute power … Barros has written a radical and bold reappraisal of established positions on the Pinochet regime … This book will be of great value to students who wish to understand more about the Chilean dictatorship but also as an introduction to theories of power and authoritarianism.'

Source: Latin American Review of Books