Praetorianism, corporate grievances and idiosyncratic factors in African military hierarchies

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Periodical article

Title:	Praetorianism, corporate grievances and idiosyncratic factors in African military hierarchies
Author:	Decalo, Samuel
Year:	1975
Periodical:	Journal of African Studies (UCLA)
Volume:	2
Issue:	2
Pages:	247-273
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	coups d'état defence
Abstract:	Purpose is to shift attention away from the discipline's fixation upon the systematic weaknesses of African states or the alleged organizational features of African armies as reasons for coups, to the internal dynamics of African military hierarchies, their officer cliques and the corporate and personalist ambitions therein. It is essentially within this domain that the core motivations for military upheavals reside, with the fragmented societal power context merely allowing, even encouraging, their unfettered expression. Sections: Introductory - Military interventions: motives and rationalizations - The military as rulers: myth and reality. Notes.