[cycomanic]

I don't think it's so straight forward. Take Germany for example. During the Weimar Republic the professional army was strongly involved in the dismantling of democracy leading to the 3rd Reich. It's been largely been attributed to the fact that they were quite disconnected from the Republic with their loyalties to their leaders not the republic (typically it's called they were a state inside the state) . Germany deliberately decided on having mandatory military service because of these experiences. The argument being if the army is composed of the people, its very difficult to use them against the people.