ABSTRACT
One crucial aspect of the history of the US military establishment can be written as the history of the compromise between policies designed to strengthen the professional standing forces and other policies that emphasize the citizen-soldier concept. The end of conscription and the introduction of an all-volunteer professional military represented a drastic break from the traditional reliance on the citizen-soldier. A military committed to deterrence appears initially to be in opposition to the format of short-term service of the citizen-soldier. Militia service and conscript service mean obligatory service or, more bluntly, compulsory service. But the essential point is that obligatory service stands in juxtaposition to the voluntary decision to offer one's service. The citizen-soldier concept, as applied to the militia and to the conscript force, implies a strong emphasis on universal service. Only a society that has important components of democratic practice or that is striving to achieve political democracy can effectively implement the citizen-soldier concept by conscription.
