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The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations

Year 2014, Volume: 19 Issue: 2, 139 - 158, 01.07.2014

Abstract

The study of civil-military relations remains dominated by Samuel Huntington’s 1957 book, The Soldier and the State, but it is unclear if the work retains external validity when applied in a contemporary context. Turkey’s volatile history of civil-military relations makes it a useful case with which to test Huntington’s propositions. Specifically, I examine the 28 February Process of 1997 and the subsequent shift in Turkey’s civil-military relationship to test the propositions that military autonomy and professionalism are the keys to civilian control of the military. These propositions are supported by underlying assumptions that privilege ideational factors and establish a division between different forms of civilian control. The Turkish case undermines these assumptions and contributes to the pursuit of a more generalisable theory of civil-military relations

References

  • * The author would like to thank Roger E. Kanet, Joseph M. Parent, Bradford R. McGuinn, Alexander R. Arifianto, and Daren G. Fisher for tireless assistance with earlier versions of this article.
  • Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations, Cambridge, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1957; Edward M. Coffman, “The Long Shadow of The Soldier and the State”, The Journal of Military History, Vol. 55, No. 1 (January 1991), pp. 69-82.
  • Peter D. Feaver, “The Civil-Military Problematique: Huntington, Janowitz, and the Question of Civilian Control”, Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 23, No. 2 (January 1996), pp. 149-178.
  • Huntington, The Soldier and the State, pp. 83-85.
  • Ronald H. Coase, “How Should Economists Choose?”, in Essays on Economics and Economists, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 15-33. Coase argues for the necessity of accurate assumptions.
  • Mehran Kamrava, “Military Professionalization and Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East”, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 115, No. 1 (January 2000), pp. 67-92; Ümit Cizre Sakallıoğlu, “The Anatomy of the Turkish Military’s Political Autonomy”, Comparative Politics, Vol. 29, No. 2 (January 1997), pp. 151-166.
  • Stephen Van Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1997, pp. 77-88.
  • Morris Janowitz, The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait, New York, The Free Press, 1963; Feaver, “The Civil-Military Problematique”, pp. 149-178; James Burk, “Theories of Democratic Civil-Military Relations”, Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 29, No. 1 (October 2002), pp. 7-29; David E. Albright, “Comparative Conceptualization of Civil- Military Relations”, World Politics, Vol. 32, No. 4 (July 1980), pp. 553-576. Feaver, Burk, and Albright all acknowledge the pre-eminence- and the flaws- of Huntington.
  • Aurel Croissant, et al., “Beyond the Fallacy of Coup-ism: Conceptualizing Civilian Control of the Military in Emerging Democracies”, Democratization, Vol. 17, No. 5 (October 2010), pp. 951 and 955.
  • Huntington, The Soldier and the State, pp. 80-85.
  • Feaver, “The Civil-Military Problematique”. As Feaver points out, even Huntington’s foremost critic, Morris Janowitz, offered an argument based largely on military professionalism.
  • ), p. 807. Barany and Schiff argue that “democratic” armies must take public opinion into account.
  • Stephen D. Krasner, Defending the National Interest: Raw Materials Investments and U.S. Foreign Policy, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1978, p. 83. Krasner refers to political institutions in the United States, but his observation is applicable elsewhere.
  • Huntington, The Soldier and the State, p. 288.
  • Amos Perlmutter, “The Praetorian State and the Praetorian Army: Toward a Taxonomy of Civil-Military Relations in Developing Polities”, Comparative Politics, Vol. 1, No. 3 (April 1969), p. 382.
  • Jennifer Sterling-Folker, “Realist Approaches”, in Jennifer Sterling-Folker (ed.), Making Sense of International Relations Theory, Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2006, p. 13; Hendrik Spruyt, Ending Empire: Contested Sovereignty and Territorial Partition, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2005, pp. 18-19; Arda Can Kumbaracıbaşı, Turkish Politics and the Rise of the AKP: Dilemmas of Institutionalization and Leadership Strategy, New York, Routledge, 2009, p. 60. Spruyt writes on veto players in general, while Kumbaracıbaşı focuses on those within the Turkish system.
  • Barany, The Soldier and the Changing State, pp. 42-43, 339-340; Croissant, et al., “Beyond the Fallacy of Coup-ism”, p. 951. A proper discussion of this assumption- that civilian control is necessary for democracy- is beyond the scope of this study, but Barany and Croissant, et al., capably examine the issue.
  • Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. The work of Linz and Stepan is a notable outlier.
  • Metin Heper and Aylin Güney, “The Military and Democracy in the Third Turkish Republic”, Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 22, No. 4 (July 1996), pp. 619-642. Heper and Güney briefly survey the history of Turkish civil-military relations through to 1996.
  • George S. Harris, “The Causes of the 1960 Revolution in Turkey”, Middle East Journal, Vol. 24, No. 4 (1970), pp. 438-454.
  • Nasser Momayezi, “Civil-Military Relations in Turkey”, International Journal on World Peace, Vol. 15, No. 3 (September 1998), pp. 3-28; Tanel Demirel, “The Turkish Military’s Decision to Intervene: 12 September 1980”, Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 29, No. 2 (January 2003), pp. 253-280.
  • Ersel Aydınlı, “A Paradigmatic Shift for the Turkish Generals and an End to the Coup Era in Turkey”, Middle East Journal, Vol. 63, No. 4 (September 2004), p. 585.
  • Carter Vaughn Findley, Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity: A History, 1789-2007, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 357.
  • pp. 462-463.
  • Findley, Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity, p. 310.
  • Narlı, “Civil-Military Relations in Turkey”, p. 235.
  • Samuel E. Finer, The Man on Horseback, Boulder, Westview Press, 1998 [1962], p. 78.
  • Ibid., p. 78; Peter J. Katzenstein, “Introduction: Alternative Perspectives on National Security”, in Peter J. Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, New York, Columbia University Press, 1996, p. 6. Finer’s idea of “political culture” bears only the faintest resemblance to “culture” as defined by culture theorists and constructivists.
  • Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968, p. 85.
  • Finer, The Man on Horseback, pp. 78-79.
  • Ergun Özbudun, “The Turkish Party System: Institutionalization, Polarization, and Fragmentation”, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (April 1981), pp. 228-240.
  • Ziya Öniş, “The Triumph of Conservative Globalism: The Political Economy of the AKP Era”, Turkish Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2012), pp. 135-152; Pope and Pope, Turkey Unveiled, p. 343.
  • Necati Polat, “The Anti-Coup Trials in Turkey: What Exactly is Going On?”, Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2011), pp. 213-219.
  • Gareth Jenkins, “Symbols and Shadow Play: Military-JDP Relations, 2002-2004”, in M. Hakan Yavuz (ed.), The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Parti, Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 2006, p. 185; Demirel, “The Turkish Military’s Decision to Intervene”, p. 274.
  • Huntington, The Soldier and the State, p. 457.
  • Ibid., pp. 315-317.
  • Finer, The Man on Horseback, p. 196; Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991, p. 277; Albright, “Comparative Conceptualization of Civil-Military Relations”, p. 554. Albright also picks up on this development.
  • Perlmutter, “The Praetorian State and the Praetorian Army”, p. 389. Perlmutter offers his own term: political institutionalisation.
  • Cem Başlevent, Hasan Kirmanoğlu, and Burhan Şenatalar, “Voter Profiles and Fragmentation in the Turkish Party System”, Party Politics, Vol. 10, No. 1 (January 2004), p. 307.
  • Carol Atkinson, “Constructivist Implications of Material Power: Military Engagement and the Socialization of States, 1972–2000”, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 3 (September 2006), pp. 509-537.
  • Jacques Barzun, “Is Democratic Theory for Export?”, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 1 (December 1987), pp. 53-71; Paul Schroeder, “The Mirage of Empire Versus the Promise of Hegemony”, in David Wetzel, Robert Jervis and Jack S. Levy (eds.), Systems, Stability, and Statecraft: Essays on the International History of Modern Europe, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 302-305.
  • Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis, New York, Columbia University Press, 1954, p. 232. “Wars occur because there is nothing to prevent them,” Waltz states.
Year 2014, Volume: 19 Issue: 2, 139 - 158, 01.07.2014

Abstract

References

  • * The author would like to thank Roger E. Kanet, Joseph M. Parent, Bradford R. McGuinn, Alexander R. Arifianto, and Daren G. Fisher for tireless assistance with earlier versions of this article.
  • Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations, Cambridge, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1957; Edward M. Coffman, “The Long Shadow of The Soldier and the State”, The Journal of Military History, Vol. 55, No. 1 (January 1991), pp. 69-82.
  • Peter D. Feaver, “The Civil-Military Problematique: Huntington, Janowitz, and the Question of Civilian Control”, Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 23, No. 2 (January 1996), pp. 149-178.
  • Huntington, The Soldier and the State, pp. 83-85.
  • Ronald H. Coase, “How Should Economists Choose?”, in Essays on Economics and Economists, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 15-33. Coase argues for the necessity of accurate assumptions.
  • Mehran Kamrava, “Military Professionalization and Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East”, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 115, No. 1 (January 2000), pp. 67-92; Ümit Cizre Sakallıoğlu, “The Anatomy of the Turkish Military’s Political Autonomy”, Comparative Politics, Vol. 29, No. 2 (January 1997), pp. 151-166.
  • Stephen Van Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1997, pp. 77-88.
  • Morris Janowitz, The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait, New York, The Free Press, 1963; Feaver, “The Civil-Military Problematique”, pp. 149-178; James Burk, “Theories of Democratic Civil-Military Relations”, Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 29, No. 1 (October 2002), pp. 7-29; David E. Albright, “Comparative Conceptualization of Civil- Military Relations”, World Politics, Vol. 32, No. 4 (July 1980), pp. 553-576. Feaver, Burk, and Albright all acknowledge the pre-eminence- and the flaws- of Huntington.
  • Aurel Croissant, et al., “Beyond the Fallacy of Coup-ism: Conceptualizing Civilian Control of the Military in Emerging Democracies”, Democratization, Vol. 17, No. 5 (October 2010), pp. 951 and 955.
  • Huntington, The Soldier and the State, pp. 80-85.
  • Feaver, “The Civil-Military Problematique”. As Feaver points out, even Huntington’s foremost critic, Morris Janowitz, offered an argument based largely on military professionalism.
  • ), p. 807. Barany and Schiff argue that “democratic” armies must take public opinion into account.
  • Stephen D. Krasner, Defending the National Interest: Raw Materials Investments and U.S. Foreign Policy, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1978, p. 83. Krasner refers to political institutions in the United States, but his observation is applicable elsewhere.
  • Huntington, The Soldier and the State, p. 288.
  • Amos Perlmutter, “The Praetorian State and the Praetorian Army: Toward a Taxonomy of Civil-Military Relations in Developing Polities”, Comparative Politics, Vol. 1, No. 3 (April 1969), p. 382.
  • Jennifer Sterling-Folker, “Realist Approaches”, in Jennifer Sterling-Folker (ed.), Making Sense of International Relations Theory, Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2006, p. 13; Hendrik Spruyt, Ending Empire: Contested Sovereignty and Territorial Partition, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2005, pp. 18-19; Arda Can Kumbaracıbaşı, Turkish Politics and the Rise of the AKP: Dilemmas of Institutionalization and Leadership Strategy, New York, Routledge, 2009, p. 60. Spruyt writes on veto players in general, while Kumbaracıbaşı focuses on those within the Turkish system.
  • Barany, The Soldier and the Changing State, pp. 42-43, 339-340; Croissant, et al., “Beyond the Fallacy of Coup-ism”, p. 951. A proper discussion of this assumption- that civilian control is necessary for democracy- is beyond the scope of this study, but Barany and Croissant, et al., capably examine the issue.
  • Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. The work of Linz and Stepan is a notable outlier.
  • Metin Heper and Aylin Güney, “The Military and Democracy in the Third Turkish Republic”, Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 22, No. 4 (July 1996), pp. 619-642. Heper and Güney briefly survey the history of Turkish civil-military relations through to 1996.
  • George S. Harris, “The Causes of the 1960 Revolution in Turkey”, Middle East Journal, Vol. 24, No. 4 (1970), pp. 438-454.
  • Nasser Momayezi, “Civil-Military Relations in Turkey”, International Journal on World Peace, Vol. 15, No. 3 (September 1998), pp. 3-28; Tanel Demirel, “The Turkish Military’s Decision to Intervene: 12 September 1980”, Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 29, No. 2 (January 2003), pp. 253-280.
  • Ersel Aydınlı, “A Paradigmatic Shift for the Turkish Generals and an End to the Coup Era in Turkey”, Middle East Journal, Vol. 63, No. 4 (September 2004), p. 585.
  • Carter Vaughn Findley, Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity: A History, 1789-2007, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 357.
  • pp. 462-463.
  • Findley, Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity, p. 310.
  • Narlı, “Civil-Military Relations in Turkey”, p. 235.
  • Samuel E. Finer, The Man on Horseback, Boulder, Westview Press, 1998 [1962], p. 78.
  • Ibid., p. 78; Peter J. Katzenstein, “Introduction: Alternative Perspectives on National Security”, in Peter J. Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, New York, Columbia University Press, 1996, p. 6. Finer’s idea of “political culture” bears only the faintest resemblance to “culture” as defined by culture theorists and constructivists.
  • Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968, p. 85.
  • Finer, The Man on Horseback, pp. 78-79.
  • Ergun Özbudun, “The Turkish Party System: Institutionalization, Polarization, and Fragmentation”, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (April 1981), pp. 228-240.
  • Ziya Öniş, “The Triumph of Conservative Globalism: The Political Economy of the AKP Era”, Turkish Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2012), pp. 135-152; Pope and Pope, Turkey Unveiled, p. 343.
  • Necati Polat, “The Anti-Coup Trials in Turkey: What Exactly is Going On?”, Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2011), pp. 213-219.
  • Gareth Jenkins, “Symbols and Shadow Play: Military-JDP Relations, 2002-2004”, in M. Hakan Yavuz (ed.), The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Parti, Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 2006, p. 185; Demirel, “The Turkish Military’s Decision to Intervene”, p. 274.
  • Huntington, The Soldier and the State, p. 457.
  • Ibid., pp. 315-317.
  • Finer, The Man on Horseback, p. 196; Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991, p. 277; Albright, “Comparative Conceptualization of Civil-Military Relations”, p. 554. Albright also picks up on this development.
  • Perlmutter, “The Praetorian State and the Praetorian Army”, p. 389. Perlmutter offers his own term: political institutionalisation.
  • Cem Başlevent, Hasan Kirmanoğlu, and Burhan Şenatalar, “Voter Profiles and Fragmentation in the Turkish Party System”, Party Politics, Vol. 10, No. 1 (January 2004), p. 307.
  • Carol Atkinson, “Constructivist Implications of Material Power: Military Engagement and the Socialization of States, 1972–2000”, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 3 (September 2006), pp. 509-537.
  • Jacques Barzun, “Is Democratic Theory for Export?”, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 1 (December 1987), pp. 53-71; Paul Schroeder, “The Mirage of Empire Versus the Promise of Hegemony”, in David Wetzel, Robert Jervis and Jack S. Levy (eds.), Systems, Stability, and Statecraft: Essays on the International History of Modern Europe, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 302-305.
  • Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis, New York, Columbia University Press, 1954, p. 232. “Wars occur because there is nothing to prevent them,” Waltz states.
There are 42 citations in total.

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Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Andrew A Szarejko This is me

Publication Date July 1, 2014
Published in Issue Year 2014 Volume: 19 Issue: 2

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APA Szarejko, A. A. (2014). The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations. PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs, 19(2), 139-158.
AMA Szarejko AA. The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations. PERCEPTIONS. July 2014;19(2):139-158.
Chicago Szarejko, Andrew A. “The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations”. PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs 19, no. 2 (July 2014): 139-58.
EndNote Szarejko AA (July 1, 2014) The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations. PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs 19 2 139–158.
IEEE A. A. Szarejko, “The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations”, PERCEPTIONS, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 139–158, 2014.
ISNAD Szarejko, Andrew A. “The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations”. PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs 19/2 (July 2014), 139-158.
JAMA Szarejko AA. The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations. PERCEPTIONS. 2014;19:139–158.
MLA Szarejko, Andrew A. “The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations”. PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs, vol. 19, no. 2, 2014, pp. 139-58.
Vancouver Szarejko AA. The Soldier and the Turkish State: Toward a General Theory of Civil-Military Relations. PERCEPTIONS. 2014;19(2):139-58.