Steven A. Cook

This is a fairly interesting book about political power in three countries where militaries are strong enough to dominate other elite factions, but not strong enough to eliminate them. The political systems which in the past few decades have prevailed in Egypt, Algeria and Turkey constitute interesting intermediate forms between dictatorships and western polyarchies. The author outines tactics that military leaders have used to retain sufficient popular legitimacy, such as staying clear of day-to-day decisions or portraying themselves as a protective bulwark against internal rebels or antagonistic nations. The book includes three general chapters and one detailed chapter on each country. The details may be informative mostly to specialists who already have intimate familiarity with the country in question. I for one struggled to keep track of the many persons and organizations which the author discusses. But the general chapters are interesting even for a layman.… (meer)