The Militia

The Benevolent Dictatorship of Baja LasVegastan has a militia. In this respect it is no different from any other nation.

However, the Benevolent Dictator considers it unwise for a standing army to get too powerful, and to therefore be in a position to depose the Benevolent Dictator. He has therefore created a national militia which is far more powerful -- in comparison to the national standing army -- than is common in other nations.

In any nation, it is easy for a standing army to become a warrior caste. The soldiers have never had a civilian life, except as children. When they retire from the army in their forties, they do not look forward to a new -- civilian -- career. No, they look forward only to the life of the professional retiree from the military, seeking out the company only of other professional retirees from the military. They seek only the modest mid-life pension, the pension that immunizes them from the necessity of seeking a civilian career. To the extent that they do seek a post-retirement civilian career, it is as a consultant to a military contractor -- an organization rife with people who have never had a conventional civilian career. Indeed, even the "except as children" qualifier may be omitted, as the fathers of such children are disproportionately likely to have been career military personnel themselves.

A warrior caste -- thus isolated from the non-warrior castes -- rapidly develops ideals and methods which differ from those of the non-warrior castes. Whether these ideals and methods are better or worse is a matter of small importance. What is of great importance is that they differ. The non-warrior castes then feel oppressed, and thus feel motivated to overthrow the Benevolent Dictator. Such motivations are to be avoided.

The only way to avoid such motivations is to speak to the warrior caste in the only language which it understands: force.

A militia can provide that force, if artfully trained and equipped. The militia must consist of men who spend most of their time as ordinary civilians -- who are not of the military caste. If sufficiently trained and equipped, it will be apparent both to the standing army and to the militia that the militia are superior, that a conflict between the standing army and the militia will be won by the militia every time.

How is this superiority to be demonstrated to everyone -- standing army, militia, and non-militia civilian alike? By money, and by politics.

• Money. Even the United States of America recognizes that a three-to-one majority is invincible. If three-fourths of the states approve, even the Constitution itself can be amended. When the militia has three times the budget of the standing army, its victory over the standing army -- should it ever come to that -- will be the backdrop before which the actors will play their parts.
• Politics. It does no good to have the militia be a counterforce to the standing army if both are -- actually or potentially -- subject to the same commander. The militia of a province or tributary state are thus subject to being impressed into the service of the Benevolent Dictator, but only upon the counter-signature of the Provincial Governor -- a Provincial Governor selected otherwise than by appointment by the Benevolent Dictator.

So, the Benevolent Dictator has imposed the following limitations upon his front organization, the Congress, in the form of a proviso in his front document, the Constitution:

1. No appropriation to the use of the Armed Forces of the Benevolent Dictatorship shall be valid unless it is accompanied by a treble appropriation to the use of the militias of the several provinces/tributary-nations, in proportion to their populations according to the last decennial census.
2. Monies appropriated to the use of the militias of the several provinces/tributary-nations shall be sub-appropriated as may be directed by the legislatures of the affected provinces/tributary-nations.
3. The governor of each province/tributary-nation shall be commander-in-chief of the militia thereof, even when such militia is called into the service of the Benevolent Dictatorship.
4. No part of the militia of any province/tributary-nation shall be called into the service of the Benevolent Dictatorship, nor remain in such service, unless:
   1. with the consent of the governor thereof, and
   2. with all compensation for such service being paid by the Benevolent Dictatorship (as distinct from being paid by the affected province/tributary-nation).
5. No person shall be eligible for service (or continued service) in the militia of any province/tributary-nation if, over the preceding sixty calendar months (excluding periods in the service of the Benevolent Dictatorship), more than a quarter of his total compensation has come from the militia, the armed forces, any contractor thereto, or any combination thereof.
6. A man's service in the militia shall not increase his chance for conscription in the armed forces, but shall not reduce it, either.