ABSTRACT
Military officers are likely to become revolutionaries if social and economic conditions they hold oppressive continue without improvement. If the officers are denied participation in the political system and the opportunity to modify by constitutional means its institutions and its policies, they may become convinced that the abuses can be corrected only through “disinterested” military intrusion into politics. The first presidents of the Turkish and Egyptian republics, living a generation apart, were both radical reformers; both devoted their political careers to the social and economic as well as political transformation of their countries. Turkey and Egypt were exceptional in the Middle East. Modernizing armies whether they intervene in politics or not are often said to be modernizing agents at large in their societies because military investment in men and machines invariably produces positive non-military side effects. Military training upgrades the quality of workmanship, for instance, and thus prepares the men for better jobs when they return to civilian life.
