Rafael Martinez

Soldiers, Politicians, and Civilians: Reforming Civil-Military Relations in Democratic Latin America

Are interactions between soldiers, politicians, and civilians improving? Every nation has to come to grips with achieving a more enduring harmony between government, the armed forces, and society if it aspires to strengthen its democracy. While there is an abundance of studies on civil-military affairs, few examine all three of these actors, let alone establish any standards with which to assess whether progress is being made. This ambitious book devises a novel framework equipped with six dimensions, each of which opens a unique window into civil-military affairs, and which form a more integrated view of the subject. Those dimensions are accompanied by a set of benchmarks and metrics that assess progress and compare one country against another. The framework is applied to case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, with the conviction that insights could be gleaned that may be relevant elsewhere. Ultimately, by unpacking the civil-military relation into its various dimensions, this study has shed light on what it takes to transform what was once a politically-minded military into an organization dedicated to serving a democratic state and society.

Spain: An Equation with Difficult Solutions

Contemporary relations between the military and society in Spain can be traced back to the civil war period. Following 3 years of cruel, fratricidal combat, the victory of the insurgent troops led to the Spanish republic being converted into a totalitarian regime headed by Franco. The dictatorship of Franco was not a military dictatorship, but rather the dictatorship of a military man who built up a triangular structure of power at the apex of which he felt protected and from which he controlled society from all angles: the army, the church and the single fascist party FET-JONS.1 Throughout almost 40 years of a totalitarian regime, millions of Spanish men spent a period of their lives as conscripts in military service under the orders of a fascist military and under the influence of an oppressive political power. The death of the dictator, in 1975, marked the start of the transition to democracy that represented a break with the stigmas of the past and, for the first time in Spanish history, ushered in a period of peaceful coexistence for the entire population. In the military domain, the reforms initiated by General Gutierrez Mellado – the first Vice-President of the Government of Adolfo Suarez – are worthy of mention. It was through these that efforts were made to modernise the Armed Forces (hereafter AF) in Spain by distancing them from political power, transforming them into a military force administered to serve political structures, and reducing their size to a more coherent one in relation to the needs and threats of a democratic state surrounded by its partners in the same economic community. However, among the military, a small but still powerful nucleus existed, whose rejection of democracy and whose nostalgia for the Franco dictatorship led to a failed attempt at a coup d’etat in 1981.

Que allò que és urgent no relegui allò que és important: absentisme vs. productivitat

El debate sobre la productividad de los empleados publicos se mezcla a menudo con alusiones al grado de absentismo de estos. Existe la percepcion de que la productividad es baja y el absentismo es muy preocupante y principal causa de la primera. Sin embargo, esta presumida relacion causa-efecto es, en muchos casos, cuestionable. Por ello quisimos conocer la opinion de quienes tienen responsabilidad politica, directiva o de gestion sobre la ocupacion publica. Para ello realizamos una encuesta entre personas con dicho perfil en las Administraciones catalanas (142 encuestados). Un primer analisis nos permite aventurar que el absentismo no es tan apabullante; sin embargo, si que preocupa la dudosa veracidad de las motivaciones de muchas de las bajas de corta duracion. Tambien destaca que la gran mayoria de los entrevistados crea que se debe incidir menos en la presencia efectiva del empleado y mas en la formula de flexibilidad horaria y de logro de objetivos. Estas y otras observaciones nos llevan a cuestionarnos si la urgencia por combatir un nivel de absentismo —que ni los datos ni la percepcion entre gestores publicos le confieren el atributo de alarmante— nos aleja de lo que si es importante: la productividad.