The Portuguese Military and the State: Rethinking Transitions in Europe and Latin America by Lawrence S. Graham

Author:Lawrence S. Graham [Graham, Lawrence S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western, General, Political Science, Europe, History
ISBN: 9780813386133
Google: FJKOAAAAMAAJ
Goodreads: 3859254
Publisher: Westview Press
Published: 1993-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

Obstacles to the Institutionalization of Civilian Oversight Authority

This institutional setting also explains the differences between design and outcome in implementing Portugal's new defense law. Despite the significance of the defense law as an instrument of political accord in 1982, insofar as the formal structures of government are concerned, this new law has actually exercised little influence over the dispersal of power in questions of national defense and security policy and the shifting patterns of influence over such matters between the Offices of the President and the Prime Minister.8 In this setting, the interpretation given to this law's implementation in questions regarding internal military affairs has served to strengthen the clout of the staffe of the individual services and has focused attention within them on the criteria to be used in making senior appointments and the rights of enlisted men. The result of these developments has been to marginalize the EMGFA further without reducing its formal standing as an organization superior to the individual services. This has led, in turn, to new bureaucratization within military affairs since as an organ that is frequently bypassed both by the parties and the services, the principal resource the EMGFA has is its control over internal bureaucratic procedures and formal channels of communication between the services and the offices of the minister and secretary of state for defense.

Yet another dimension to be taken into account is the gradualness with which issues related to depoliticizing and displacing the military from active participation in questions of public policy continue to be approached. In this regard, the strategy and procedures followed in drawing up, debating, and arriving at two-third's support in the Assembly of the Republic for a new national defense law merit comment. Rather than a law imposed by majority vote, a conscious strategy of involvement and participation on the part of all crucial actors—military as well as civilian—took precedence. Not only was broad-based political party agreement established in advance, but the Government's initial draft reflected ample and detailed discussion with the senior military on a point by point basis of the defense law proposed in parliament. The result of these lengthy discussions and debates was a general agreement or settlement regarding the procedures to be followed that has facilitated policy making in other areas. Thus, while many in the senior military were not happy with major components of the law, they accepted it because they viewed it as a legitimate reflection of majority political preferences within Portugal. As a consequence, they cooperated in its promulgation and entering into effect. Equally important was the role played by the President (Eanes), who when he saw his veto overriden, emphasized the correctness and the legitimacy of the procedures through which it had been ratified and sanctioned. Once in place, this new defense law has come to symbolize the civil-military accord reached: civilian supremacy in public affairs.

Once again, earlier outcomes such as these have direct bearing on the present impasse. No one wishes to upset earlier accords. To deal with

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