Democratic Militarism
Voting, Wealth, and War

Examines the political and economic circumstances which lead democracies to build up their militaries and involve themselves in armed conflict.

Jonathan D. Caverley (Author)

9781107667372, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 May 2014

326 pages, 26 b/w illus. 1 map 18 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.53 kg

'Democratic Militarism may transform how we think about democracy, wealth and war. Caverley builds a bold theory from the ground up, provides substantial initial empirical support for it, and applies it to some of the most important and enduring questions of our time. I firmly expect that this will come to be seen as one of the most influential books in international security produced in years.' William C. Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor of Government, Dartmouth College

Why are democracies pursuing more military conflicts, but achieving worse results? Democratic Militarism shows that a combination of economic inequality and military technical change enables an average voter to pay very little of the costs of large militaries and armed conflict, in terms of both death and taxes. Jonathan Caverley provides an original statistical analysis of public opinion and international aggression, combined with historical evidence from the late Victorian British Empire, the US Vietnam War effort, and Israel's Second Lebanon War. This book undermines conventional wisdom regarding democracy's exceptional foreign policy characteristics, and challenges elite-centered explanations for poor foreign policy. This accessible and wide ranging book offers a new account of democratic warfare, and will help readers to understand the implications of the revolution in military affairs.

1. Introduction: sources of democratic military aggression
2. Cost distribution and aggressive grand strategy
3. Analyses of public opinion
4. Analyses of arming and war
5. British electoral reform and imperial overstretch
6. Vietnam and the American way of small war
7. Becoming a normal democracy: Israel
8. Conclusion: strategy wears a dollar sign.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Politics & government [JP], Military history [HBW]