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Democracies at War / Allan C. Stam, Dan Reiter.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2010]Copyright date: ©2002Edition: Course BookDescription: 1 online resource (304 p.) : 18 tables. 5 line illusContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691089492
  • 9781400824458
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 355.02 21
LOC classification:
  • JC421 .R4185 2002
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- TABLES AND FIGURES -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ONE. Democracy's Fourth Virtue -- TWO. Democracy, War Initiation, and Victory -- THREE. Democracy and Battlefield Success -- FOUR. Balancers or Bystanders? -- FIVE. Winning Wars on Factory Floors? -- SIX. Democracy, Consent, and the Path to War -- SEVEN. The Declining Advantages of Democracy -- EIGHT. Why Democracies Win Wars -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX
Summary: Why do democracies win wars? This is a critical question in the study of international relations, as a traditional view--expressed most famously by Alexis de Tocqueville--has been that democracies are inferior in crafting foreign policy and fighting wars. In Democracies at War, the first major study of its kind, Dan Reiter and Allan Stam come to a very different conclusion. Democracies tend to win the wars they fight--specifically, about eighty percent of the time. Complementing their wide-ranging case-study analysis, the authors apply innovative statistical tests and new hypotheses. In unusually clear prose, they pinpoint two reasons for democracies' success at war. First, as elected leaders understand that losing a war can spell domestic political backlash, democracies start only those wars they are likely to win. Secondly, the emphasis on individuality within democratic societies means that their soldiers fight with greater initiative and superior leadership. Surprisingly, Reiter and Stam find that it is neither economic muscle nor bandwagoning between democratic powers that enables democracies to win wars. They also show that, given societal consent, democracies are willing to initiate wars of empire or genocide. On the whole, they find, democracies' dependence on public consent makes for more, rather than less, effective foreign policy. Taking a fresh approach to a question that has long merited such a study, this book yields crucial insights on security policy, the causes of war, and the interplay between domestic politics and international relations.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400824458

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- TABLES AND FIGURES -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ONE. Democracy's Fourth Virtue -- TWO. Democracy, War Initiation, and Victory -- THREE. Democracy and Battlefield Success -- FOUR. Balancers or Bystanders? -- FIVE. Winning Wars on Factory Floors? -- SIX. Democracy, Consent, and the Path to War -- SEVEN. The Declining Advantages of Democracy -- EIGHT. Why Democracies Win Wars -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

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http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Why do democracies win wars? This is a critical question in the study of international relations, as a traditional view--expressed most famously by Alexis de Tocqueville--has been that democracies are inferior in crafting foreign policy and fighting wars. In Democracies at War, the first major study of its kind, Dan Reiter and Allan Stam come to a very different conclusion. Democracies tend to win the wars they fight--specifically, about eighty percent of the time. Complementing their wide-ranging case-study analysis, the authors apply innovative statistical tests and new hypotheses. In unusually clear prose, they pinpoint two reasons for democracies' success at war. First, as elected leaders understand that losing a war can spell domestic political backlash, democracies start only those wars they are likely to win. Secondly, the emphasis on individuality within democratic societies means that their soldiers fight with greater initiative and superior leadership. Surprisingly, Reiter and Stam find that it is neither economic muscle nor bandwagoning between democratic powers that enables democracies to win wars. They also show that, given societal consent, democracies are willing to initiate wars of empire or genocide. On the whole, they find, democracies' dependence on public consent makes for more, rather than less, effective foreign policy. Taking a fresh approach to a question that has long merited such a study, this book yields crucial insights on security policy, the causes of war, and the interplay between domestic politics and international relations.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)