Explaining Civil-Military Relations in New Democracies: Structure, Agency and Theory Development

Democratization and Civilian Control in Asia

“…At the same time, 'agency' does not happen in a vacuum but is influenced at least to some degree by 'structure'. Agency-centered frameworks, however, often neglect to theorize the interplay between agency and the environment in which it takes place (Kuehn & Lorenz, 2011). The analytical challenge for any explanation of civil-military relations in new democracies, then, is how to integrate 'structure' and 'agency' into a coherent theoretical framework (ibid.…”

“…However, civilian control does not just happen but is created by purposeful actors. All structural arguments, therefore, must implicitly assume that structural conditions influence the behavior of military and non-military elites in some way or another (Saam, 1999: 54;Kuehn & Lorenz, 2011). Our analyses therefore focus on the strategic actions of political actors and how they relate to the structural, ideological, and institutional environment in which civilian and military elites interact.…”

“…As Kuehn and Lorenz (2011) note, most of these theoretical frameworks can be grouped into one of two categories. The categories differ in the relative importance scholars attach to 'structure' and 'agency' in constructing their explanations.…”

“…While this problem lies at the heart of explaining civil-military relations, it has yet neither been sufficiently integrated into explanatory theories nor rigorously applied in empirical research (see Croissant & Kuehn, 2011b;Kuehn & Lorenz, 2011;Pion-Berlin, 2011). By systematically combining structure and agency into a coherent theoretical argument, our approach will also contribute to the Introduction 5 Second, there is considerable diversity in the region regarding the outcomes of these democratic transitions.…”

“…As Kuehn and Lorenz (2011) note, most existing explanations of civil-military relations in new democracies can be grouped into one of two categories. Approaches in the first category focus on 'structure', arguing that civilian control mainly depends on a single or a group of factors that determine the environment in which the interactions between civilians and the military take place (e.g.…”