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The present article reflects on the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985), seeking to inquire as to the basis of power used by the Regime to retain State control for over 20 years. The general aim is to understand the legal mechanisms used by the military government to maintain public power. A brief comparison is made between the authoritarian systems of the Southern Cone during the 1960s, analyzing the preferred regulatory production of the despotic system, in order to describe the juggling acts performed in the legislation. Finally, the article aims to comprehend the lengthy process of transition to the New Republic. To do so, the deductive approach method is used, along with the historic and monographic procedure methods, combining the techniques of bibliographic and documentary research by means of a review of the literature produced on the subject. As expected, the results demonstrate the harnessing of the Law according to the momentary interests of the occupants of the upper tiers of the federal administration, the maneuvers employed to weaken the opposition, and that the transition negotiated during the 1980s generated a form of democracy granted/conceded by the military commanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]