ABSTRACT
But the relations between the professional soldiers and the politicians vary considerably from state to state, and from time to time. The preeminence of civil authority is normally taken for granted in most of the great constitutional democracies, though not always in France. In some South American and Middle Eastern states, however, civil authority counts for less with the army than the authority of its own officers. In those countries, military revolts are not unusual. In such a state, the government must surely feel its freedom of choice somewhat circumscribed within the limits of what the generals will stand. But in trying to understand the importance of military power in politics, it may be more interesting, in such cases, to look at the interplay of pressures within the armed forces, than to lump them together as the 'supreme coercive power'.
