War and Revenge: Explaining Conflict Initiation by Democracies

While we know much about what differentiates the conflict behavior of democracies from autocracies, we know relatively little about why some democracies are more belligerent than others. In contrast to existing studies, I argue that it is public opinion and not institutions that drives these differe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American political science review Vol. 109; no. 3; pp. 556 - 573
Main Author STEIN, RACHEL M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.08.2015
Subjects
Accountability
Attitudes
Autarchy
Autocracy
Behavior Patterns
Beliefs
Capital Punishment
Conflict
Democracy
Dictators
Elections
Incentives
Institutional Characteristics
Leaders
Political behavior
Political science
Political theory
Politics
Psychological Patterns
Public Opinion
Public Support
Values
War
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Summary:While we know much about what differentiates the conflict behavior of democracies from autocracies, we know relatively little about why some democracies are more belligerent than others. In contrast to existing studies, I argue that it is public opinion and not institutions that drives these differences. All democratic leaders have an incentive to take public opinion into account, but public opinion is not the same everywhere. Individuals’ attitudes towards war are shaped by core beliefs about revenge, which vary across countries. Leaders with more vengeful populations will be more likely to initiate conflicts because they generate popular support for war more effectively. Using retention of capital punishment as a proxy for broad endorsement of revenge, I find that democracies that have retained the death penalty for longer periods of time are significantly more likely to initiate conflicts. This research has important implications for existing theories of democracy and war.
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ISSN:0003-0554
1537-5943
DOI:10.1017/S0003055415000301