ABSTRACT
Civil–military relations constitute one of the key processes within the structure of state power. As Max Weber suggested, the state is that political unit which successfully claims the legitimate monopoly on the use of force. While the military is not the only instrument by which the state exercises “monopoly on the use of force,” it is a key state agency in the application of force. Historically, in Latin America and elsewhere in the developing world, the armed forces have exercised significant power and influence over the state. The military was a foundational institution of the modern Latin American state. The failure of other institutions to establish political stability and the imperatives of maintaining power in the context of resource scarcity and unequal social relations, led the armed forces to step into the breach and seek to provide authority where a vacuum existed. In the case of the countries studied here longstanding economic, social and political pathologies created overwhelming incentives for the military, acting alone or on behalf of entrenched elites, to exercise political power. In turn, the exercise of such power alienated social forces which erupted in revolutionary movements that challenged the state's monopoly on the legitimate use of force. The military and its allies then applied further repression in order to maintain power. The late twentieth century global wave of democratization, plus geopolitical changes that shifted the balance of power in Latin America, led to processes of liberalization and democratization that altered the dynamics of state power, and promoted a transformation in the way the military relates to society.
