Democratic Control of Armed Forces: Relevance, Issues, and Research Agenda

Abstract

Basically, the subject of the democratic control of armed forces refers to the question “Who guards the guards?” This enduring question was raised as far back as in classical Rome by Juvenal.1 Democracy always implicitly presumes unlimited civilian supremacy over the command of the armed forces-anything short of that defines an incomplete democracy (Luttwak, 1999). But what exactly is democratic control, and how can we conceptualize it? Generally speaking, a state’s system of democratic control is a product of its system of government, politics, history, and culture. Aditionally, as there are many different cultures and political systems, many different norms and practices of democratic control also exist. Consequently, and for better or worse, there is no single, definitive normative model for democratic control. At least several models are present, some of which appear to contradict others. The main question of this chapter is “How can democratic control be conceptualized?” The following questions relating to the issue are addressed: (1) What is democratic control?, (2) What is the relevance of democratic control?, (3) How can democratic control be achieved?, (4) What are specific problems of democratic control?, and (5) How can democratic control be studied?