Military coups in Spain rise from elite clique rivalries, not rank-and-file revolt

Evidence

Hence military governments in Spain are governments of “great” generals. Passivity of the peasant masses, as citizens and as soldiers. If political disintegration occurs in the army, it does so in a vertical rather than a horizontal sense, through rivalries between cliques at the top: the rank and file splits up behind the various competing leaders. Military government is a parenthesis between two constitutional governments. The military are the permanent reserves of order and conservation; they are a political force which comes into action “publicly” when “legality” is in danger. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 845

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes vertical disintegration (rivalry among top cliques) from horizontal disintegration (rank against leadership) as distinct forms of military political failure.