Political Partisanship and the Military Ethic in America

The article addresses the results of a recently published survey on civil-military relations that revealed a close affiliation between the officer corps and the Republican Party. Based largely on these results, the directors of the survey concluded that officers have violated their professional ethic by abandoning the tradition of political neutrality. The article first examines the reasons for the Republican bias, which include the conservatism of the GOP vis-A-vis the Democratic Party, as well as institutional changes within the military over the past three decades. Second, it assesses the effect of the Republican bias on officer professionalism. The evidence suggests that voting does not, by itself, compromise an officer's ability to act responsibly, the principal measure of professionalism. Officers who vote are not constrained from performing their professional duties competently and rendering expert, unbiased advice to civilian leaders.