Over two-thirds of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule, characterized by violations of civil liberties and human rights and a lack of accountability. Staying in power requires authoritarian leaders to rely on repression, making the regime’s security apparatus the central institution for protecting a regime. Focusing on the role of individuals in the security apparatus, “Making a Career in Dictatorship” asks two timely and crucial questions: who are the individuals that loyally carry out violent orders of a regime, thus contributing to its stability, and who are those that eventually participate in coups against that government? The book argues that part of the answer lies in career concerns of officers within the authoritarian security apparatus. Officers under career pressure seek ways to overcome obstacles hindering their advancement. One strategy is to apply for unpopular assignments to prove their loyalty to the regime in hope of a future reward. The other strategy is to conspire against the current leadership, hoping for a better career and life under a future regime. Drawing on an impressive original and fine-grained dataset covering the performance and career trajectories of several thousand officers who graduated from Argentina’s military academy from 1870 through the 20th century, the authors open the black box of studying the inner workings of an authoritarian regime. The book finds that underperforming officers were more likely to do the regime’s dirty work, regaining promotions this way, and that coup plotters also find co-conspirators among officers who are under career pressure.

The committee noted the creative and original data collection and analysis to study the career trajectories, performance, and role of officers in repression and coup attempts in Argentina. The book further embeds the findings in a broader comparative discussion of such decisions using Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as comparative cases. The committee was particularly impressed with the book’s accessible writing style, making complex and historical findings on Argentina’s security apparatus understandable to a broad audience. “Making a Career in Dictatorship” contributes to a deeper understanding of how authoritarian regimes can remain stable by adopting a bottom-up perspective on authoritarian politics. 

The findings of this book are clearly relevant to the literature on democratization and democratic backsliding as well as on bureaucracies. For instance, the book cautions against the claim that a meritocratic bureaucracy can serve as a firewall against authoritarianism. By shifting attention away from leaders to the regime apparatus and career incentives, one may learn more about the forces that sustain or undermine a regime. At the international level, the book’s findings on the role of career pressures in political violence and regime stability may carry implications for broader policy areas beyond its immediate topic, including the design of economic sanctions against autocratic regimes and the structuring of security assistance and military training programmes in new democracies.

In conclusion, the book is a remarkable piece of scholarship and well-deserving of the EPSS Best Book Award. Congratulations!

Prize Committee (Anna Getmansky, Mark Kayser, Sven-Oliver Proksch)