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Continuity and Discontinuity in African Military Organisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

The contemporary involvement of the armed forces in African politics seems to prove Mosca's maxim: ‘the class that bears the lance or holds the musket regularly forces its rule upon the class that handles the spade or pushes the shuttle’.1 Explanations for coups d'etat are myriad. The eruption of social conflicts into the armed services; personal and corporate greed; abridgement of military institutional prerogatives; weaknesses of the political system as a whole; increased emphasis on coercion: all figure among the reasons for intervention.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

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