Some Details About the Origin of the Theory of Civil-military Relations

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of the theory of civil-military relations developed by Huntington in his book The Soldier and the State. It argues that the theory proposed by Huntington was an innovation for one main reason: it offered a new method to limit military involvement in political affairs. Instead of increasing power of civilian groups to counteract military power, as many authors proposed, Huntington assures that the only way to keep military in their own business is to maximize military professionalism. The main objective of this research is to analyze the theoretical origins that provided a framework for the development of this theory. The argument that the author tries to prove is that its origins can be explained by the influence of the set of assumptions about the «garrison state» which began to develop early in the Second World War and whose best known exponent is Harold Lasswell’s work, «The Garrison State».