ABSTRACT
As discussed in detail in the first chapter, democracy in any country is unlikely to develop or to endure unless the military and other security forces are under the full control of democratic institutions and all the necessary safeguards, checks and balances to affect this are in place. If defence would be exempted from democratic decision making and left alone to an unaccountable small circle of civilian or military decision makers it is not possible to speak of a democratic state but only of a ‘guardian’ state. In a democratic society, civil-military relations should be governed according to principles of political supremacy, accountability and the rule of law. This idea is embodied in the constitutions of democratic states across Europe, for example in France and Hungary, two of the countries which are studied in this volume:
The President of the Republic shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He shall preside over the Higher National Defence councils and committees.
