"What is the secret of the amazing subordination of the armies of the West? Mosca finds the answer in the aristocratic character, so to say, of the army, first in the fact that there is a wide and absolute social distinction between private and officer, and second that the corps of officers, which comes from the ruling class, reflects the balance of multiple and varied social forces which are recognized by and within that class. The logical implications of this theory are well worth pondering. If the theory be regarded as sound, steps toward the democratization of armiesāthe policy of Mr. Hore-Belisha, for instanceāare mistaken steps which in the end lead toward military dictatorships; for any considerable democratization of armies would make them active social forces reflecting all the vicissitudes of social conflict and, therefore, preponderant social forces. On the other hand, army officers have to be completely eliminated from political life proper. When army officers figure actively and ex officio in political councils, they are certain eventually to dominate those councils and replace the civil authority ā the seemingly incurable cancer of the Spanish world, for an example."
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Politicians from ItalyPhilosophers from ItalyJournalists from ItalySociologists from ItalyJurists from Italy
Original Language: English
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Arthur Livingston, Introduction to "The Ruling Class", p.xxv
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gaetano_Mosca
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Gaetano Mosca
1858 ā 1941
Gaetano Mosca (1858-1941) was an Italian political scientist, journalist and public servant.
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