Theories of Democratic Civil-Military Relations

Abstract

This article reviews civil-military relations theory applied to mature democratic states. It assumes that the important theoretical problem is how to maintain a military that sustains and protects democratic values, showing how the classic and still influential theories of Huntington and Janowitz were rooted, respectively, in liberal and civic republican theories of democracy and, as a result, neither adequately solved this problem. The article then uses current research to pose new questions about the relations between military and political elites, the relations of civilians to the military and the state, and the multinational use of force. Based on the review, it concludes that a new theory of civil-military relations-one that accounts for the circumstances mature democracies presently face and tells how militaries can sustain as they protect democratic values cannot be derived from either liberal or civic republican models of democracy, as Huntington and Janowitz tried to do, but might be derived from federalist models.