Soldados

The quality of the assimilation of the military fact in modern democracies is usually cited among the health indicators of political systems. There are reasons for this, since, having been provided with the necessary means for the exercise of legitimate state violence, "one cannot imagine a more dangerous formula for the future of a society than providing the soldier with the means to destroy democracy and, straight away, give him sufficient reasons to do so", as the book maintains. The author investigates with surgical precision the roots of this disturbing reality, to describe what the military are like, what they believe in, what is their relationship with violence or how they interact with civil society, power or politicians. An enlightened approach to issues that mark Spanish political life, such as the influence of nationalism, the cohabitation of the three powers or the deficits that, after years of disaffection, have metabolized in the Armed Forces themselves, is not avoided either.