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The quantity & recurrence of military coups in Latin America requires a more scientific approach & better methodologies. The evaluative or normative approach, be it from the point of view of the "utilitarians" or the uncritical Marxists, has failed to render knowledge. The neopositivists, be they "atomistic causal," aggregative or "conjunctural," not only failed to understand but also failed to forecast the increase in coups since 1961. Their error is to consider the Armed Forces in Latin America as passive objects responding mechanistically to outside stimuli & with constant properties through time. Both approaches failed to recognize the emergence of military coups of a new model with similar patterns clearly distinct from the previous type. Differences are shown in the processes, objectives, self-definition, & procedures of governing between the coups from 1966 on & the former ones. A new methodology is suggested with a voluntaristic approach. The unit of analysis must be the Armed Forces as an actor in front of a social, economic, & cultural situation while influenced by institutional interests, motivations, value commitments, & internal processes of decision-making. The interaction of the Armed Forces with other actors at its level produces a process that follows a general pattern of sequences according to the historical starting point & the cumulative effects of the successive previous total situations. AA.