The All-Volunteer Military as a "Sociopolitical" Problem

The shift from a system of conscription to an all-volunteer military is a manifestation of the long-term decline in the mass armed force in Western parliamentary system. The end of conscription is no short-term measure but likely to persist so that the emergence of an expanded all-volunteer armed forces raises a series of sociopolitical issues for a political democracy. First, the hypothesis is examined that the military in the United States is displaying an increased emphasis on its organization boundaries and distinctive values. Thereby, its linkages with civilian society become attenuated and tied to special segments of the social structure. Second, it is possible to examine the changing social recruitment and, thereby, probe the hypothesis that the military—both the officer corps and the enlisted personnel—each in its own fashion is becoming less and less socially representative. These trends in social recruitment, especially of army officers, can create an “ideological cast” in the military and serve as another source of political cleavage. The implication is drawn that “institution building” is required in order to insure civilian control and to articulate the military with the larger society.