Abstract
It may be useful at this point to sketch the ideal-type of the cadet as it emerges from the em-pirical researches cited above in order to give the reader a broad general idea of the situation. It should be said at the outset, however, that this operation entails ample approximations which do not always take significant regional and national differences into account.
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The reference here is to the normal courses that regard most of the future officers. When one examines the officer courses of particular technical services, the set of university subjects obviously changes and, according to the case, takes a direction in engineering, computer science, electronics, and so on. An example of the percentage distribution of cadets by major is supplied by Lindy Heinecken (Franke, 2001, p. 571) for the South African academy, “With roughly 55 percent of students enrolled in the human sciences, 12 percent in the natural sciences and 25 percent in management programs.”
The problem of the early departure of officers arose especially in the 1990s, when the generalized downsizing of national militaries following the end of the Cold War made it necessary to streamline the officer corps as well. This problem is still (2001) particularly acute for the Eastern European countries, which had oversized armies. To give a concrete idea of the problem, I report what a Bulgarian researcher wrote about his country (S. E. Nikolov, in Caforio, 2000b, p. 15), where officers’ lack of a valid educational qualification in the civilian sector “left most of them unable to find appropriate job in the civilian labour market. For example, many colonels and even generals were forced to work as door-keepers, janitors, wardens, etc., in order to add something to their low pensions.”
Published in the already cited The European Officer (Caforio, 2000b) and in The Flexible Officer (Caforio, 2001).
For a theoretical presentation of the convergent/divergent model, see G. Caforio and M. Nuciari (1994b).
According to R. Molker (cited study, p. 135), in the Dutch military academy “motivation to study is low and academic objectives are not met; the military objectives are probably only partly met; it seems that the objective of group development is met. During their time as cadets, officers create an ‘old boys’ network that is of great use during the career.”
For the whole sample the standard error of the mean ranges from 0.09 to 0.89. Standard error indicates how greatly the mean score of the sample is likely to differ from the mean score of the investigated population.
For a complete description of the model see Caforio and Nuciari (1994b, pp. 33–56). For the application of the “Burpro” variable to the research in question, see Caforio (1998a, p. 14). On the same page see the application of the “Profes” variable relative to the professional/occupational dichotomy.
Larson (1974), Feld (1977), Segal (1986), Moskos (1988).
Anyone wishing to read the entire research report will find it in Caforio (1998).
Diffidence toward the mass is not proper only to cadets, but appears to be confirmed at all levels of the profession by various researches: for all, see the one conducted on European officers by our working group (Caforio, 1994a).
For all, see Priest (1982) and also Priest (1998).
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Caforio, G. (2006). Military Officer Education. In: Caforio, G. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of the Military. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-34576-0_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-34576-0_15
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