Dictablanda

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is a dictatorship in which civil liberties are allegedly preserved rather than destroyed, and authoritarian and democratic features are combined.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is a pun on the Spanish word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("dictatorship"), replacing {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which by itself is a word meaning 'hard', with {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, meaning 'soft'.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and to the hegemonic 70-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The same play on words can be seen in the example of the Portuguese word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. In February 2009, the Brazilian newspaper {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ran a controversial editorial classifying the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985) as a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In Spanish, the term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is contrasted with {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (a portmanteau of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), meaning an illiberal democracy – a system in which the government and its leaders are elected, but which is relatively deficient in civil liberties.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

See also

• Benevolent dictatorship
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• Reign of Alfonso XIII of Spain