ASSESSING THE MILITARYS INFLUENCE ON POLITICAL REPRESSION

This paper examines the relationship between military influence and th e use of repression (censorship and political restrictions). Three hyp otheses are examined in a pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis of 57 countries front 1948 to 1982. The first hypothesis considers the proposition that military influence directly effects political repres sion. The second and third hypotheses investigate the moderating impac t of democracy and dependency as they effect this basic relationship. Within the context of a multivariate model, the analysis supports the first hypothesis, rejects the second, and partially supports the third . These findings are discussed with regard to their relevance to the e xisting literature and numerous suggestions are offered for future res earch.