Political scientist Gregory Weeks focuses on a key defect in the new democracy of Chile and many other countries: inadequate civilian control of the armed forces. His accurate chronological account exhibits exceptional strength on historical, institutional, and legal factors. The most valuable section treats civil-military relations under the Concertación governments since redemocratization in 1990. His analyses stem from a mastery of the fundamental secondary literature and its interpretations. He also relies on original research consisting of interviews with politicians and military officers and examinations of magazines, newspapers, government documents, and military journals.
Weeks takes an intermediate position between scholars who contend that the armed forces are no longer an overpowering political actor in most of Latin America and those who assert that they still play a preponderant role. He does so by asking under what conditions the military will perceive its basic interests as requiring political intervention. When that activism...
