Abstract
Among the theorists of political development there are many who see the military as an agent of modernisation.1 Shils starts with the polarisation of non-Western societies into traditional and modern sectors. Traditional societies ‘lack elements of civil politics’, because ‘fealty to rulers, respect for the aged, bravery in war, obligations to one’s kin, responsiveness to the transcendent powers which make and destroy men’s lives … are their virtues’.2 On the other hand, to be ‘modern’ means ‘being Western without depending on the West’.3 The Western model may be imposed on traditional societies because these possess ‘sufficient ambiguity, and hence flexibility, to accommodate innovations’.4
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Notes
Edward Shils, ‘The Military in the Political Development of New States’, in The Role of the Military in Underdeveloped Countries, ed. J. J. Johnson (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972) pp. 7–68.
Amos Perlmutter, Egypt: The Praetorian State (New Brunswick, NJ.: Transaction Books, 1974) p. 4.
J. C. Hurewitz, Middle East Politics: The Military Dimension (London: Pall Mall Press, 1969) p. 420.
M. Halpern, The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963) p. 253.
J. A. Bill, ‘The Military and Modernization in the Middle East’, Comparative Politics, vol. 2, no. I (Oct 1969) pp. 41–62.
D. A. Rustow, ‘The Military in Middle Eastern Society and Politics’, in The Contemporary Middle East: Tradition and Innovation, ed. B. Rivlin and J. S. Szyliowicz (New York: Random House, 1965) pp. 461–74.
Harold Crouch, The Army and Politics in Indonesia (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1978).
See Clifford Geertz, The Religion of Java (New York: The Free Press, 1960).
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© 1984 Asaf Hussain
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Hussain, A. (1984). The Military as an Agent of Change. In: Political Perspectives on the Muslim World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17529-1_4
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