Training Citizen Officers

Abstract

To sustain a democracy, a country requires a military to defend their values against external and internal threats. This military must respect the social norms of a democracy to prevent a coup that will devastate the democratic system. This relationship between military troops and civilian elected leaders is well studied, but the attitudes that these soldiers hold after training is less well understood. In this project, I examine how undergoing training as a young adult, via the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, relates to one’s political and social attitudes. I seek to answer the questions: How do political attitudes of students in ROTC compare to college students of the same cohort? How does the public perceive the ROTC program and how does this relate to their approval of military affairs? To answer these questions, I first survey students enrolled in ROTC programs to assess their political and social attitudes. Second, I survey college students on these same attitudes to compare them to the attitudes of ROTC students. Finally, I survey the public on their attitudes on ROTC, and their evaluation of military policies. In my survey of students, I find that, compared to their college counterparts, ROTC students are more likely to be open to learning about diverse perspectives, trusting of American political institutions, proud of American history, democracy and innovations, and more likely to take risks. I also find that the American people are generally confident in ROTC programs to train future military officers and find ROTC programs to be a net positive contribution to the college campus environment. Furthermore, higher confidence in ROTC programs relates to greater support for the US military's importance and usefulness to complete core missions related to American domestic and foreign policy. In all, students who receive ROTC training emerge as more patriotic, open-minded and risk oriented citizens who respect American democratic norms, and the people have great support for what they can contribute to the nation.