The Journal of Modern African Studies

Table of Contents - 1988 - Volume 26, Issue 03  

Articles

Setbacks to Political Institutionalisation by Praetorianism in Africa

Opoku Agyeman*

Praetorianism has been authoritatively defined as a situation in which ‘the military class of a given society exercises independent political power within it by virtue of an actual or threatened use of military force’.1 A praetorian state, by elaboration, is one in which the military tends to intervene and potentially could dominate the political system. The political processes of this state favor the development of the military as the core group and the growth of its expectations as a ruling class; its political leadership (as distinguished from bureaucratic, administrative and managerial leadership) is chiefly recruited from the military, or from groups sympathetic, or at least not antagonistic, to the military. Constitutional changes are effected and sustained by the militaty, and the army frequently intervenes in the government.2

Footnotes

* Associate Professor of Political Science, Montclair State College, New Jersey.