A01=Allan C. Stam
A01=Dan Reiter
American entry into World War I
Arsenal of Democracy
Author_Allan C. Stam
Author_Dan Reiter
Authoritarianism
Autocracy
Belligerent
Blitzkrieg
Carl von Clausewitz
Category=JPHV
Category=JPS
Category=JW
Cold War
Communist state
Containment
Correlates of War
Declaration of war
Defense pact
Defensive war
Democracy
Democratic peace theory
Democratization
Dictatorship
Economic growth
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Estimation
Foreign policy
Foreign policy of the United States
Great power
Gulf War
International relations
Liberal democracy
Liberalism
Militarized interstate dispute
Military strategy
Morale
Nation state
National security
Nazi Germany
North Vietnam
On War
Operation Barbarossa
Outcome (probability)
Pacifism
Political culture
Political science
Politician
Politics
Popular sovereignty
Prediction
Preemptive war
Prisoner of war
Probability
Probit model
Regime
Regression analysis
Result
Saddam Hussein
Soviet Union
Statistical significance
Superiority (short story)
Tax
Totalitarianism
Voting
War
War effort
War of aggression
Warfare
Wehrmacht
Winter War
World war
World War I
World War II
Yale University
Yale University Press
Yom Kippur War
Product details
- ISBN 9780691089492
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 10 Feb 2002
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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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.
Dan Reiter is Associate Professor and Winship Research Professor in the Department of Political Science at Emory University. He is the author of Crucible of Beliefs: Learning, Alliances, and World Wars. Allan C. Stam is Associate Professor of Government and Deputy Director of Academic Programs at Rockefeller Center, Dartmouth College. He is the author of Win, Lose, or Draw; Domestic Politics and the Crucible of War.
