Crafting Civilian Control of the Military in Democratizing States.

One of the most critically important tasks in democratizing states is reforming politically influential military into a professional and politically neutral organization. How can the armed forces that have been deeply engaged in politics in the ancien regime be transformed into a new institution that is effectively controlled by newly established democratic leadership? A predominant body of literature on democratization and civil-military relations focuses on several factors such as civilian leaders' political skills and strategies, roles of civil society, modes of regime transition, punishment of old crooks in the military, etc. But it is not easy to find a useful extant literature that explores the army's organizational structure and its influence on officers' political attitudes in democratizing societies. The research suggests that depoliticizing the armed forces and crafting firm civilian control over officers in democratizing states depends largely on whether newly elected leaders can remove factions in the military and rebuild it into a cohesive and unified institution. To test the argument, the research conducts structured-focused analysis of four Asian countries: South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia. In South Korea and Taiwan, newly elected leaders successfully removed factions in the military and reorganized it into a unified body; in the Philippines and Indonesia, the armed forces still suffer from factional struggles, which in turn reinforce officers' appetite for political domination even after the democratic regime transition. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]