The outcome is a sort of lethal quadrille, with different military and civilian factions selecting partners - and changing them as the dance proceeds.

Rivalries among civilian political factions have weakened successive Turkish governments, and partly as a result the military has taken on a larger role in key policy decisions.

Years of upheaval followed as leftist and right-wing factions, civilian and military, struggled for power.

Pridi Bhanomyong, the leader of civilian faction, and Marshal Pibulsongkram, head of military faction.

The smaller civilian factions (Malerid, Ichat and Waz League) were suppressed.

Throughout his tenureship he was Saddam Hussein's most notable contender for the leadership of the civilian faction, and was considered the third most powerful man in Iraq by observers.

This would be a continuing theme of space, having "bad guy", "good guy" and "civilian" factions.

Army officers backed by civilian factions launched pronunciamientos in which they attempted to apply their own favored solutions and to expel or to intimidate opponents.

Once the PLA was drawn into civilian politics during the Cultural Revolution, the military became divided along the lines of civilian factions.

Within a few years, however, the New Order elite, with the Military and a small civilian faction at its centre, had alienated many original allies.