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Guarding the Guardians

DOI link for Guarding the Guardians

Guarding the Guardians book

Civil-Military Relations and Democratic Governance in Africa

Guarding the Guardians

DOI link for Guarding the Guardians

Guarding the Guardians book

Civil-Military Relations and Democratic Governance in Africa
ByMathurin C. Houngnikpo
Edition 1st Edition
First Published 2010
eBook Published 22 April 2016
Pub. location London
Imprint Routledge
DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315586014
Pages 228 pages
eBook ISBN 9781315586014
SubjectsPolitics & International Relations
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Houngnikpo, M. (2010). Guarding the Guardians. London: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315586014

The relationship between civil society and the armed forces is an essential part of any polity, democratic or otherwise, because a military force is after all a universal feature of social systems. Despite significant progress moving towards democracy among some African countries in the past decade, all too many African militaries have yet to accept core democratic principles regulating civilian authority over the military. This book explores the theory of civil-military relations and moves on to review the intrusion of the armed forces in African politics by looking first into the organization and role of the army in pre-colonial and colonial eras, before examining contemporary armies and their impact on society. Furthermore it revisits the various explanations of military takeovers in Africa and disentangles the notion of the military as the modernizing force. Whether as a revolutionary force, as a stabilizing force, or as a modernizing force, the military has often been perceived as the only organized and disciplined group with the necessary skills to uplift newly independent nations. The performance of Africa's military governments since independence, however, has soundly disproven this thesis. As such, this study conveys the necessity of new civil-military relations in Africa and calls not just for civilian control of the military but rather a democratic oversight of the security forces in Africa.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

chapter |22 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|24 pages

Conceptual and Theoretical Issues

chapter 2|26 pages

Civil-Military Relations in Africa

chapter 3|16 pages

Explaining Army Intrusion in African Politics: An On-going Debate

chapter 4|16 pages

The African Military and Modernization

chapter 5|20 pages

The Performance of Civilian and Military Regimes: A Comparative Assessment

chapter 6|20 pages

Towards New Civil-Military Relations in Africa

chapter 7|18 pages

Legitimacy and Democratic Oversight of the Security Sector in Africa

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