Military Supremacy

The National Army reached the apex of its military and political power by 1923. The reasons for this remain largely understudied within the current discourse; the demobilisation process which ultimately led to an ill-conceived plot to overthrow the political and military leadership has dominated most of the studies of the post-civil war military and its structures. The supremacy of the National Army in 1923 has yet to be examined from the perspective of state formation, as the civilian apparatus was nascent and largely confined to the major cities. How the military managed state functions during this timeframe and the often contradictory steps taken by the civilian government to reduce and increase military power will be examined in this chapter. While the plans for a peacetime military were developed in early 1922, the eventual structures that were in place during 1923 are a complex mixture of political policing, basic state functions and a broad definition of ‘aid to civil power’. The role of the civilian leadership in sustained and critiquing this state of affairs is one that this chapter will explore in detail, starting with the continuation of political policing by the military as opposed to the civilian police forces.