dictablanda

{{Short description|Dictatorship in which civil liberties are allegedly preserved}}

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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}

{{lang|es|Dictablanda}} is a dictatorship in which civil liberties are allegedly preserved rather than destroyed, and authoritarian and democratic features are combined.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uViqAwAAQBAJ&dq=Dictablanda%3A%20Politics%2C%20Work%2C%20and%20Culture%20in%20Mexico%2C%201938%E2%80%931968&pg=PT7 | title=Dictablanda: Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico, 1938–1968 | isbn=978-0-8223-7683-5 | last1=Gillingham | first1=Paul | last2=Smith | first2=Benjamin T. | date=2 April 2014 | publisher=Duke University Press }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-6FaEAAAQBAJ&dq=Dictablanda&pg=PA126 | title=The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies | isbn=978-0-19-093105-6 | last1=Cammett | first1=Melani | last2=Jones | first2=Pauline | date=2022 | publisher=Oxford University Press }} The word {{lang|es|dictablanda}} is a pun on the Spanish word {{lang|es|dictadura}} ("dictatorship"), replacing {{lang|es|dura}}, which by itself is a word meaning 'hard', with {{lang|es|blanda}}, meaning 'soft'.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uViqAwAAQBAJ&dq=Dictablanda+%22blanda%22+%22soft%22&pg=PT10 | title=Dictablanda: Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico, 1938–1968 | isbn=978-0-8223-7683-5 | last1=Gillingham | first1=Paul | last2=Smith | first2=Benjamin T. | date=2 April 2014 | publisher=Duke University Press }}

The term was first used in Spain in 1930 when Dámaso Berenguer replaced Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja as the head of the ruling dictatorial government, and attempted to reduce tensions in the country by repealing some of the harsher measures that Primo de Rivera had introduced. It was also used to refer to the later years of Francisco Franco's Spanish State,{{cite journal | journal=The Centennial Review |volume = 20|first=Gabriel |last=Jackson |date=Spring 1976 |jstor = 23738276|issue = 2|pages = 103–127|title = The Franco Era in Historical Perspective}} and to the hegemonic 70-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico.{{cite journal |last1=Vaughan |first1=Mary Kay |title=Mexico, 1940–1968 and Beyond: Perfect Dictatorship? Dictablanda? or PRI State Hegemony? |journal=Latin American Research Review |date=2018 |volume=53 |issue=1 |page=170 |jstor=26744297 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/51E46588C671CB63B177D1E2C24DD0AD/S0023879100004441a.pdf/mexico-1940-1968-and-beyond-perfect-dictatorship-dictablanda-or-pri-state-hegemony.pdf |issn=0023-8791}}

The same play on words can be seen in the example of the Portuguese word {{lang|pt|ditabranda}} or {{lang|pt|ditamole}}. In February 2009, the Brazilian newspaper {{lang|pt|Folha de S.Paulo}} ran a controversial editorial classifying the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985) as a {{lang|pt|ditabranda}}.{{cite web |url=http://portalimprensa.uol.com.br/colunistas/colunas/2009/02/25/imprensa374.shtml |title=A 'ditabranda' da Folha |publisher=Portal Imprensa |first=Igor |last=Ribeiro |date=February 25, 2009 |language=pt |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120201152634/http://portalimprensa.uol.com.br/colunistas/colunas/2009/02/25/imprensa374.shtml |archivedate=2012-02-01}}

In Spanish, the term {{lang|es|dictablanda}} is contrasted with {{lang|es|democradura}} (a portmanteau of {{lang|es|democracia}} and {{lang|es|dictadura}}), meaning an illiberal democracy – a system in which the government and its leaders are elected, but which is relatively deficient in civil liberties.{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2020.1806829 | doi=10.1080/10286632.2020.1806829 | title=Cultural policies in illiberal democracies: A conceptual framework based on the Polish and Hungarian governing experiences | date=2021 | last1=Bonet | first1=Lluis | last2=Zamorano | first2=Mariano Martín | journal=International Journal of Cultural Policy | volume=27 | issue=5 | pages=559–573 }}