We study whether crony governance can extend beyond economic policy to the targeting of state violence against citizens. We do so with a micro-analysis of state repression by the Argentine military junta that took power in March 24, 1976. Specifically, we examine the logic driving the choice of...

Under dictatorship, trade unions and strikes are illegal, and so wages are low and employment is full. Under democracy, there are two institutional innovations: trade unions, which can keep the wage about the Walrasian level, and the citizen franchise, by which citizens may vote transfer...