Civil-military relations beyond dichotomy: with special reference to Turkey

Abstract

For a better grasp of the role of militaries in political systems one should get beyond dichotomous approaches. This study identifies three distinct but interpenetrating realms in a polity: social, political and military. Based on the nature of the military’s relations with social and political spheres and actors, it delineates four types of militaries: professional, nation’s army, predatory praetorian and popular praetorian. This article also shows that the Turkish military constitutes one of the rare epitomes of popular praetorian military and discusses the current state and prospects of civil-military relations in Turkey.