Overview

The exercise of public power by the military in civilian Western democracies such as Australia and the United States demonstrates a tendency toward failure in responsibility for moral behavior. Pauline Collins argues that a different system of military criminal investigation and discipline outside the civilian justice system enables the military to operate like a coterie and can lead to a failure in the requisite moral standard of behavior required of military personnel and maintaining civilian institutional control. Collins argues that the justifications for separate treatment of weakens both the military standing and the practice of civilian control of the military as well as leading to an overall decline in morality and values in a democratic society.

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9781498557047

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Reviews

As a legal officer in the Australian Army Reserve (now long retired), I personally encountered numerous aspects of Pauline Collins' excellent work, The Military as a Separate Society, in particular the complicated questions raised by the extent of civilian institutional control over the military. This is a comprehensive work, and possibly the only one of its kind, to perform such a detailed analysis of the American and Australian experiences. Certainly at least for Australian legal officers, it is compulsive reading. For those presently serving, it provides a valuable insight into the nuances of how the question is viewed institutionally. For those who have left the service, the book vividly brings to life the vexed issues they likely were called upon to resolve, and it will leave them wishing that such a valuable resource had been available to them earlier. -- Ken Yin, Edith Cowan University

Author Information

Pauline Collins is professor in the School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland.

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