ABSTRACT
The changing trend in civil-military relations suggested by the reduced percentages of former officers in the political and administrative elites is confirmed by the historical evidence. The relentless assault by the military and its leader clearly transcends what would result from only a personal connection between the President and the Minister of Defence. A chain of military consumer "cooperatives" caters to the day-to-day requirements of officers and the families. Entrance into the neoMamlukian, autonomous military world is regulated by an increasingly separate and exclusive educational system. The vertical integration of the military structure, which has converted it into an almost entirely autonomous enclave of middle-class modernity in an increasingly impoverished and marginalized Third World economy, has been paralleled by a vast proliferation of its activities, facilitating access to patronage resources and, in so doing, reinforcing Abu Ghazala's grip on the institution.
