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| Shelf |
MON/2010.021 |
| Title |
The man on horseback : the role of the military in politics. - |
| Publisher |
Transaction Publishers |
| Size |
xxi, 268 p. |
| Year |
20020000 |
| Language |
eng |
| ISBN |
978-0765809223 |
| Subject Term |
armed forces | politics | government | state | military government | political systems |
| Subject place |
universal |
| Author |
Finer, Samuel E. |
| Contents |
The role of the military in a society raises a number of issues: How much separation should there be between a civil government and its army? Should the military be totally subordinate to the polity? Or should the armed forces be allowed autonomy in order to provide national security? Recently, the dangers of military dictatorships-as have existed in countries like Panama, Chile, and Argentina-have become evident. However, developing countries often lack the administrative ability and societal unity to keep the state functioning in an orderly and economically feasible manner without military intervention. Societies, of course, have dealt with the realities of these problems throughout their histories, and the action they have taken at any particular point in time has depended on numerous factors. In the "first world" of democratic countries, the civil-military relationship has been thoroughly integrated, and indeed by most modern standards this is seen as essential. However, several influential Western thinkers have developed theories arguing for the separation of the military from any political or social role. Samuel Huntington, emphasized that professionalism would presuppose that the military should intervene as little as possible in the political sphere. Samuel E. Finer, in contrast, emphasizes that a government can be efficient enough way to keep the civil-military relationship in check, ensuring that the need for intervention by the armed forces in society would be minimal. At the time of the book's original publication, perhaps as a consequence of a post-World War II Cold War atmosphere, this was by no means a universally accepted position. Some considered the military to be a legitimate threat to a free society. Today's post-Cold War environment is an appropriate time to reconsider Finer's classic argument. Contents: 1. The Military in the Politics of Today; 2. The Political Strengths of the Military; 3. The Political Weaknesses of the Military; 4. The Disposition to Intervene (1) Motive, 5. The Disposition to Intervene (2) Mood; 6. The Opportunity to Intervene; 7. The Levels of Intervention (1) Countries of developed political culture; 8. The Levels of Intervention (2) Countries of low political culture; 9. The Levels of Intervention (3) Countries of minimal political culture; 10. The Modes of Intervention; 11. The Results of Intervention - The Military Regimes; 12. The Past and the Future of Military Intervention. Bibliography. Index of persons. Index of countries. Index of subjects. |
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