There Are Several Principals— Each One Worthy of Research

Abstract

In defense of the argument made in "Courage in the Service of Virtue," in effect that courageous military advice better serves the republic when it accounts for political competition facing civilian principals, the author answers the complaint that his analysis accorded too much deference to the executive and ignored Congress and the people as the real principals of American civil-military relations. The principal-agent model has more than one useful application, and executive authority over the U.S. military is both more fragile and more important for democratic control than the critics imply.

Usund fornuft – Værnsrivalisering og den demokratiske kontrol med militæret

“…De danske forsvarsforlig bringer parlament og regering sammen i en faelles, bindende beslutning om forsvaret. Dermed er Danmark taettere på agentteoriens ideal om en principal end USA, hvor man i forhold til modellen kan indvende, at en demokratisk principal ofte kan vaere en splittet størrelse (Coletta 2008;Feaver 2011). Agentteorien er en hensigtsmaessig tilgang, da den bedst fanger den regelmaessige dag til dag udveksling i den civil-militaere relation, samt at der ikke siden Huntington er givet en teori som beskriver en samlet ramme for denne interaktion (Feaver 2003: 3-12).…”