Models and Explanations for Military Organization: An Updated Reconsideration

Abstract

The classic approach to the consideration of the military as a social phenomenon is no different from the one applied to every other sector of social life. Classic sociology has a total and comprehensive conception of “society,” and within the classics we find a general analysis of the various social institutions as considered not only in their peculiarities but mainly in their connections with the general society. The military is one of the many, and basic, institutions considered by classic sociologists according to the various sociological schools, and its features are seen as a distinct set of behaviors, rules, norms, and values coordinated around a defensive or offensive goal (or both) defined by a given society (but generally typical of every society) in their relationships with other, external, societies. The military is considered and explained within the different sociological theories, so that we have a positivistic explanation of the role of the military as a basic feature of the human society since its origins-as in Comte-or an evolutionary consideration of the military structure as a first stage in the society evolution-as in Spencer. Both Comte and Spencer consider the inevitable decline of the military structure and function as a consequence of the development of human society from its primitive features to its highest manifestation, the industrial society (as it was seen and intended in the 19th century).