ABSTRACT
The praetorian, as defined before, 1 is not the servant but the temporary master of the situation. He not merely lends his force to politics; he makes politics. The praetorian may or may not have a program of his own. He may procure it from some source and thereby run the risk of being taken over by the interests the program promotes and being demoted to the role of policeman. Or in the rare case that a praetorian army has developed its own ideology, it is likely to change from a praetorian to a political army, capable of acting as a social force in its own right for those who are too weak to act or have not at that time an independent existence. 2
