In this article we argue that earthquakes are natural experiments that test the institutional and constitutional frameworks of the political system (whether democratic or not), both in relation to whether it is efficient enough to maintain public order and reconstruct the social order; or if, on the contrary, it requires extraordinary measures to lead the crisis. Using primary and secondary sources, we inquire into the political events that followed the earthquakes of 1939, 1960 (both under the democratic Constitution of 1925) and 1985 (under the authoritarian Constitution of 1980). Our results show that, in democracy, the political temptation to resort to extraordinary measures, represented in the renunciation of civilian control of the affected areas and their transfer to military forces, is relatively high, while in dictatorship a decisive consistency is appreciated by the extralegality of the regime.