tantial, notably in the case of Rome's eastern continuation or successor, the Byzantine Empire. Rather few states, however, can avail themselves of this option. (The short history of air forces suggests no strong tendency for them to be either launchers of or deterrents against military coups.)
In a Western tradition going back to classical antiquity, reliance has often been placed in a citizen militia, as counterweight against or substitute for a standing army. For a republican state, or at least one whose government rests in some way on popular assent, this solution seems a natural one. The militia, in principle, is the citizenry in arms, by definition loyal to itself, capable of meeting an army on reasonable equal terms, or of suppressing a revolution-from-the-top by a political elite. The militia theory underlies the second amendment to the American Constitution.
In practice, however, citizen-militia have for the most part been of decidedly limited effectiveness -- as Niccolo Mac
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