Crisis, Populism and Regulatory Seizure

The global decline in democracy has sparked discussions about its effects on government operations. Existing research, however, has not fully explained why contemporary authoritarian-leaning leaders use the military for political patronage, especially in regulatory agencies. Based on a customized analytical framework which sets out the main mechanisms underpinning the phenomenon, this study examines how authoritarian populists use military personnel to exert control over autonomous regulators. We rely on administrative data from different official sources featuring Brazilian public agencies to disentangle the role of civil-military dynamics in reshaping regulatory governance under populist regimes, and the consequences of democratic erosion for those agencies.