Military Governments
Military government, as is evident from the name, refers to theadministration of a country by the military. Such a government may beformed when a country conquers another country and establishes a militarygovernment or after an internal take-over of power by the military througha coup d'etat. While such governments are a rarity in developed countries,they are quite common in the third world countries. This paper takes abrief look at the major strengths and weaknesses of military governments. The basic role of the military is the defense of a country's bordersand to protect it from foreign aggression. It is generally expected tooperate under the control of the civilian government. However, in a numberof third world countries with no established tradition of civilian ordemocratic rule, the military acquires a lot of muscle and begins to harborpolitical ambitions. Due to strict discipline and a hierarchicaladministrative structure, the military organization is often contemptuous
Military regimes have a narrow power base and, therefore, tend toprotect the interests of a small section of the population. This leads to a 'pressure cooker' situation inwhich the people do not have the 'relief valve' of expressing their viewsfreely. As a result,military governments look to work in collusion with a pliable civilianbureaucracy and a tiny elite, which seeks to benefit financially by gettingclose to the power base. 4) Another strength of a military government is that it is that, notbeing answerable to the public opinion, it can take unpopular decisionswhich may be necessary in a particular situation. The experience of some Latin American counties shows that militarygovernments typically achieve higher rates of economic growth than theircivilian counterparts. Militarygovernments also have a more efficient mechanism of implementing theirdecisions; hence such a government is able to bring riots and other law andorder situations under control quickly by the use of force and bysuspending "niceties" such as civil liberties in times of trouble. The centralization of power in a few hands and lack of answerability to thepublic over which it rules, leads to a situation in which the maxim of"absolute power corrupts absolutely" is proven right. Such policies generally conflict with theinterests of the majority. It is by naturesuspicious of any widespread unrest or signs of threat to security of thecountry. " Strengths The major strength of a military government is its highlyhierarchical power structure, whereby a military dictator can takedifficult and bold decisions in times of emergency situations. 235) This, however, is not aunanimous view as the UNDP's Human Development Report, 2002 states:"neither authoritarianism nor democracy is a factor in determining eitherthe rate of economic growth or how it is distributed. Experience has shown that sooner or later, a violent upheavaltakes place, which is far more de-stabilizing for the country than wouldhave been the case in a democratic set-up. Military governments invariably suppress political opposition,dissent and a free press.
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