[Dean's World] Andrew Cory: Democratic peace in Action.

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Posted by Andrew Cory:
Democratic peace in Action.
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1143516497.shtml


   (or: look dad, that was money well spent!)

   Professor Rummel has a few notes from the Saddam interrogation. Take a
   [1]gander at 'em before continuing reading my post.

   Ready?

   Being able to interrogate Saddam brings some interesting light to
   Jervis=E2 theories. In his War and Misperception, Jervis makes the case
   that countries might go to war even if they had all relevant
   information. He says that this is because sometimes (perhaps often)
   the domestic cost of not going to war is higher than the domestic cost
   of losing a war. Saddam certainly seems to have thought this to be the
   case...

   This also proves the value of being a democracy when deciding about
   going to war: A) Being that deluded about your capabilities is nearly
   impossible with a free press and a dedicated opposition party. B)
   Leaders in a democracy almost always lose power if they lose a war.
   They therefore chose their wars _carefully_, so as to minimize the
   chance to lose office...

   Democracies therefore have better information and have leaders with
   interests in better alignment with their countries than do
   non-democracies. All of this helps explain why democracies win 80% of
   their wars...

   (Cross-posted at [2]The Punning Pundit, a blog you ought read more
   often.)

References

   1. http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2006/03/inside-saddams-head-and-reg=
ime.html
   2. http://www.punningpundit.com/archives/2006/03/democratic_peac.html