1 Chapter 19 Militaries and Police Forces

Key Issues What are the distinctive features of the military as a political institution? 2

3 ‘Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun’ Mao Zedong Problems of War and Strategy (1938)

4 The Military and Politics 1.As an instrument of war : the military enjoys a virtual monopoly of weaponry and substantial coercive power. As the military has the capacity to prop up or topple a regime, its loyalty is essential to state survival. 2.An guarantee of Political Order and Stability: armed forces are tightly organised and highly disciplined bodies, characterised by a hierarchy of ranks and a culture of strict obedience. They are thus an extreme example of bureaucracy in the Weberian sense. This gives the military an unusual degree of organisational effectiveness, although it can also breed inflexibility and discourage initiative and innovation.

5 3.An Interest Group: as an instrument of policy: as a device through which governments can achieve their foreign or domestic ends. Militaries can act as interest groups that seek to shape or influence the content of policy itself. The senior military is likely to ‘push’ policies that enhance the size and status of the armed forces, or guarantee their independence. This view sees the military as a lobby group that campaigns mainly for an increase in the military budget, or as a series of rival services or units that struggle for the largest possible cut of the defence cake.

6 4.An alternative to civilian rule: the control of weaponry and coercive power gives it the capacity to intervene directly in political life, leading in extreme cases to the establishment of military rule. Military can prop up an unpopular government or regime, it can also remove and replace the governing elite or topple the regime itself. The defining feature of military rule is that members of the armed forces displace civilian politicians, meaning that the leading posts in government are filled on the basis of the person’s position within the military chain of command.

Controlling the military The military is kept out of politics. This is achieved in a number of ways. First, the military is formally subordinate to civilian leaders, who are usually accountable to an assembly or the public. Second, policy making, even in defence and military realms, is the responsibility of civilian politicians, the military being required merely to offer advice and to take charge of implementation. Third, strict political neuturality within the armed forces, ensuring that they will remain loyal regardless the party or government that is in power. 7

8 Censorship ( 新聞審查制 ): The control of publications, expressions of opinion, or other public acts, censorship may be formal or informal. Rebellion ( 叛亂 ): A popular uprising against the established order, usually (unlike a revolution) aimed at replacing rulers rather than the political system itself.

9 When does the military seize power? Economic backwardness Loss of legitimacy by civilian rulers Conflict between the military and the government A favourable international context

10 Repression ( 鎮壓 ): In the political sense is a state of subjugation brought about through systematic intimidation or open violence. Similar in kind to suppression, it differs in degree, being typically proactive rather than reactive. Repressive regimes weaken or abolish the machinery of representative politics (elections, parties, trade unions, a free press, etc.), and establish a climate of fear through routine surveillance and the exercise of force.

11 The Police and Politics Roles of the police Civil policing: it refers to the role of the police in the enforcement of criminal law. This is the aspect of police work with which the general public is usually most familiar and which dominates the public image of the police force: the police force exists to ‘fight crime’. Political policing: in two sense: first, policing may be carried out according to political biases or social prejudices that favour certain groups or interests over others. Second, policing may extend beyond civil matters and impact on specifically political disputes.

12 Cont. Police states: the term refers to a form of rule in which the liberal balance between police powers and civil liberties has been entirely abandoned, allowing a system of arbitrary and indiscriminate policing to develop. The police force therefore operates outside a legal framework and is accountable to neither the courts nor the general public. Police states has totalitarian features, in that the excessive and unregulated power that is vested in the police is designed to create a climate of fear and intimidation in which all aspects of social existence are brought under political control.