Civil-Military Relations Reconsidered: A Theory of Concordance

Abstract

This article offers a new theory for examining civil-military relations. The current theory assumes that the military should remain separate from civilian political institutions in order to prevent domestic military intervention. By contrast, concordance theory, proposed in this article, argues that three partners-the military, the political elites, and the citizenry should aim for a cooperative relationship that may or may not entail the separation of political and military institutions. As a descriptive and prescriptive theory, concordance does not limit itself to one civil-military scenario, and it explains the institutional and cultural conditions that affect the distinctive relationships among the three partners. Furthermore, if these partners agree on four indicators-the social composition of the officer corps, the political decision-making process, recruitment method and military style-do-mestic military intervention is less likely to occur.