Drafting Community: Understanding the Fate of Conscription

Abstract

Discussion about the fate of conscription has focused on whether structural trends are undermining its viability. This article takes another point of departure, arguing that the fate of conscription will be determined by its legitimacy as a social institution. This legitimacy is now under question because conventional myths legitimating the institution no longer function. The fate of conscription depends on whether the institution can be re-enchanted. With reference to the French abandoning conscription and the Swedes reforming it, the article shows that (paradoxically) the re-enchantment of conscription is less likely if the conventional myths are well articulated, central to politics, and hence in a position to overshadow discussions and capture political imagination (as in France). Inversely, conscription is more readily re-enchanted when conventional myths are less central and well articulated (as in Sweden).