This dissertation explains the reasons for democratic stability and breakdown in two industrially advanced developing countries, India and Brazil. Arguments of this dissertation have been derived from econo-military dependency, economic development, and civil-military relations perspectives. None of the existing explanations for stability of the Indian democracy and the 1964 breakdown of the Brazilian democracy has made any conscious attempt to combine both internal and external variables. Modifying the existing mono-causal explanations, this dissertation argues that a combination of such variables as econo-military dependence on the United States, aid dependence on the United States and multilateral financial institutions, role of the military and the counter-hegemonic forces account for most of the variations between the two cases.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 263-273).