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For la Patria: Politics and the Armed Forces in Latin America. By Brian Loveman. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 331p. $60.00 cloth, $23.95 paper.
Have military institutions in Latin America accepted subordination to civilian rule and shed their penchant for political intervention and coups? Brian Loveman presents a comprehensive picture of the Latin American armed forces in all their complexity and raises fundamental questions about the depth of change in military institutions and civil-military relations.
Loveman begins by posing several questions central to the analysis of civil-military relations and civilian control. Who decides, and through what procedures, what the armed forces' functions will be? When and how are their missions carried out? What is the relative autonomy of the armed forces on professional and institutional matters? What occurs when there are disagreements between and among military and civilian officials (p. xiii)? Most important, who decides when la Patna is threatened (p. xiv)? Loveman's main thesis is that military forces in Latin America's new (and renewed) democracies continue to be political actors whose subordination to civilian rule remains conditional. Within the "military lore" of the armed forces, he contends, the assumption persists that military commanders decide when threats exist and when intervention is warranted, as in the past (p. xiv). The notion of the military as guardian of the nation and the concept of "protected democracy" permeate the militaries, and many Latin American societies as well.
Loveman skillfully presents the complex historical and cultural traditions and influences that have shaped military institutions and their strategic doctrines. Although he...