Civil society as defence policy formulator: For real or token partner?

Abstract

It is a truism that civil-military relations as a descriptive term or as a subdiscipline of sociology are often utilised only in already democratised states. Prior to transition to democracy the term in its conventional sense seems to have limited application. In democracies a basic conception developed that the existence of military forces requires the necessary institutions for the political and democratic control of such armed forces. This is a serious implied obligation that rests on the shoulders of a democratic government and the society (citizenry) at large. However, in the previously centralised political system of South Africa, as it tends to be in most authoritarian, one party state and dictatorship systems, one would be hard pressed to find a clear distinction between the civilian authorities and the security agencies, inclusive of the military. A variety of arrangements, structures and approaches within such states form a central part of the state and either govern or co-govern the polity. Hence the distinction between civilian and military authority becomes problematic and rather intertwined in centralised state systems.