The U.S. military has been described as a calling, an occupation, a way to get ahead in life, a warrior class, and a family tradition. This study explores whether there are civil–military or partisan divides over these descriptions, cleavages that could be important to the broader debates on the civil–military divide and partisan polarization. This article presents the results of a survey fielded to a nationally representative sample of American adults to test whether respondents agreed with these narratives about the military. The results of this exploratory research indicate that most veterans agree with all five descriptions of the military, whereas less than half of nonveterans agree with any of them. A larger share of Republicans than Democrats agreed that the military is a calling, warrior class, or family affair. Altogether, the results suggest that Americans are divided over how to describe the military.
AbramowitzA. I. (2011). The disappearing center: Engaged citizens, polarization, and American democracy. Yale University Press.
2.
AbramsS. J.FiorinaM. P.PopeJ. C. (2011). Culture war? The myth of a polarized America. Longman.
3.
AgrestiA. (2015). Foundations of linear and generalized linear models. John Wiley & Sons.
4.
AlpassF.LongN.MacdonaldC.ChamberlainK. (1999). The Moskos institution-occupation model: Effects on individual work related perceptions and experiences in the military. Journal of Political & Military Sociology, 27(1), 67–80.
5.
AnsolabehereS.SchaffnerB. F. (2014). Does survey mode still matter? Findings from a 2010 multi-mode comparison. Political Analysis, 22(3), 285–303.
6.
BachmanJ. G.SegalD. R.Freedman-DoanP.O’MalleyP. M. (2000). Who chooses military service? Correlates of propensity and enlistment in the U.S. Armed Forces. Military Psychology, 12(1), 1–30.
BowenG. L. (1986). Intergenerational occupational inheritance in the military: A reexamination. Adolescence, 21(83), 623–629.
11.
BryantS.SwaneyB.UrbenH. (2021). From citizen soldier to secular saint: The societal implications of military exceptionalism. Texas National Security Review, 4(2), 9–24.
12.
BurbachD. T. (2017). Gaining trust while losing wars: Confidence in the U.S. Military after Iraq and Afghanistan. Orbis, 61, 154–177.
13.
BurbachD. T. (2019). Partisan dimensions of confidence in the U.S. Military, 1973–2016. Armed Forces & Society, 45(2), 211–233.
14.
BurkJ. (1984). Patriotism and the all-volunteer force. Journal of Political & Military Sociology, 12(2), 229–241.
15.
ButlerJ. S. (2025). The science of Charles C. Moskos: From institution to occupation. Armed Forces & Society, 51(2), 476–481.
16.
CornesseC.BlomA. G.DutwinD.KrosnickJ. A.De LeeuwE. D.LegleyeS.PasekJ.PennayD.PhillipsB.SakshaugJ. W.StruminskayaB.WenzA. (2020). A review of conceptual approaches and empirical evidence on probability and nonprobability sample survey research. Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 8(1), 4–36.
17.
DavisJ. A. (2001). Attitudes and opinions among senior military officers and a U.S. cross-section, 1998–1999. In FeaverP.KohnR. H. (Eds.), Soldiers and civilians: The civil-military gap and American National Security (pp. 101–128). MIT Press.
18.
DeaneC. (2024, October17). Americans’ deepening mistrust of institutions. Pew Research Center. https://pew.org/40eFLof
19.
DempseyJ. K. (2010). Our army: Soldiers, politics, and American civil-military relations. Princeton University Press.
FarisJ. H. (1981). The all-volunteer force: Recruitment from military families. Armed Forces & Society, 7(4), 545–559.
22.
FeaverP. (2023). Thanks for your service: The causes and consequences of public confidence in the U.S. military. Oxford University Press.
23.
FeaverP.KohnR. H., & Belfer Center for Science International Affairs. (Eds.). (2001). Soldiers and civilians: The civil-military gap and American National Security. MIT Press.
24.
FiorinaM. P.AbramsS. J. (2008). Political polarization in the American public. Annual Review of Political Science, 11, 563–588.
25.
HolstiO. R. (2001). Of chasms and convergences: Attitudes and beliefs of civilians and military elites at the start of a new millennium. In FeaverP.KohnR. H. (Eds.), Soldiers and civilians: The civil-military gap and American National Security (pp. 15–100). MIT Press.
26.
HuntingtonS. P. (1957). The soldier and the state: The theory and politics of civil-military relations. Harvard University Press.
IyengarS.LielkesY.LevenduskyM.MalhotraN.WestwoodS. J. (2019). The origins and consequences of affective polarization in the United States. Annual Review of Political Science, 22, 129–146.
29.
JanowitzM. (1960). The professional soldier: A social and political portrait. Free Press.
30.
JohnsonT.DawesC. T.McGueM.IaconoW. G. (2018). Numbers assigned in the Vietnam-era selective service lotteries influence the military service decisions for children born to draft-eligible men. Armed Forces & Society, 44(2), 347–367.
31.
KingD. C.KarabellZ. (2003). The generation of trust: How the U.S. military has regained the public’s confidence since Vietnam. The AEI Press.
32.
KrebsR. R.RalstonR. (2022). Patriotism or paychecks: Who believes what about why soldiers serve. Armed Forces & Society, 48(1), 25–48.
LiebertH.GolbyJ. (2017). Midlife crisis? The all-volunteer force at 40. Armed Forces & Society, 43(1), 115–138.
35.
LythgoeT. J. (2023). Are the U.S. military’s nonpartisan norms eroding?Armed Forces and Society, 49(2), 310–329.
36.
MarguliesM.BlankshainJ. (2022). Specific sources of trust in generals: Individual-level trust in the U.S. military. Daedalus, 151(4), 254–275.
37.
MasonL. (2015). “I disrespectfully agree”: The differential effects of partisan sorting on social and issue polarization. American Journal of Political Science, 59(1), 128–145.
38.
MasonL. (2018). Uncivil agreement: How politics became our identity. University of Chicago Press.
39.
McCartyN. (2019). Polarization: What everyone needs to know. Oxford University Press.
MoskosC. C. (1977). From institution to occupation: Trends in military organization. Armed Forces & Society, 4(1), 41–50.
42.
MoskosC. C.WilliamsJ. A.SegalD. R. (Eds.) (2000). Armed forces after the cold war. In MoskosC. C.WilliamsJ. A.SegalD. R. (Eds.), The postmodern military: Armed forces after the cold war (pp. 1–13). Oxford University Press.
43.
PadillaP. A.LanerM. R. (2002). Trends in military influences on army recruitment themes: 1954–1990. Journal of Political & Military Sociology, 30(1), 113–133.
44.
ParkS.ShoiebZ.TaylorR. E. (2017). Message strategies in military recruitment advertising: A research note. Armed Forces & Society, 43(3), 566–573.
45.
PetersR. (1994). The new warrior class. Parameters, 24(1), 16–26.
SchakeK.MattisJ. N. (2016). Warriors and citizens: American views of our military. Hoover Institution Press.
53.
SegalD. R.YoonY. H. (1984). Institutional and occupational models of the army in the career force: Implications for definition of mission and perceptions of combat readiness. Journal of Political & Military Sociology, 12(2), 243–256.
StahlM. J.McNicholsC. W.ManleyT. R. (1981). A longitudinal test of the Moskos institution/occupation model: A three-year increase in occupational scores. Journal of Political & Military Sociology, 9(1), 43–47.
56.
StetsJ. E.Burke PeterJ. (2000). Identity theory and social identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(3), 224–237.
57.
StopherP. (2012). Data expansion and weighting. In P. Stopher (Ed.) Collecting, managing, and assessing data using sample surveys (pp. 418–430). Cambridge University Press.
58.
TaylorW. A. (2023). The advent of the all-volunteer force. Routledge
59.
ThomasG. W. (1984). Military parental effects and career orientation under the AVF: Enlisted personnel. Armed Forces & Society, 10(2), 293–231.
60.
UrbenH. (2014). Wearing politics on their sleeves? Levels of political activism of active duty army officers. Armed Forces & Society, 40(3), 568–591.
61.
UrbenH. (2021). Party, politics, and the post-9/11 army. Cambria Press.
62.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2023a). Sex by age by veteran status for the civilian population 18 years and over, American Community Survey 2023 1–year estimates table B21001. U.S. Department of Commerce. https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2023.B21001
WoodruffT.KeltyR.SegalD. R. (2006). Propensity to serve and motivation to enlist among American combat soldiers. Armed Forces & Society, 32(3), 353–366.
65.
WoodruffT.KeltyR.SegalD. R. (2025). Revisiting propensity to serve and motivations to enlist: Insights and implications for contemporary military recruitment challenges and research. Armed Forces & Society, 51(2), 482–491.
