1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910817183903321

Autore

Baum Matthew <1965->

Titolo

War and democratic constraint : how the public influences foreign policy / / Matthew A. Baum, Philip B. K. Potter

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, New Jersey : , : Princeton University Press, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

0-691-16523-8

1-4008-6647-2

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (275 ) : illustrations, tables

Classificazione

POL011000POL016000POL028000SOC052000

Disciplina

327.1

Soggetti

International relations - Public opinion

International relations - Decision making - Citizen participation

Political participation

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Figures and Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Introduction: Looking for Democratic Constraint -- Chapter 2. Democracies Are Not Created Equal: A Theory of Democratic Constraint -- Chapter 3. Democratic Constraint, the Democratic Peace, and Conflict Initiation -- Chapter 4. Looking for Audience Costs in All the Wrong Places: Constraint and Reciprocation -- Chapter 5. Willing and Politically Able: Democratic Constraint and Coalition Joining -- Chapter 6. Downs Meets the Press: How Party Systems Shape the News -- Chapter 7. Coalition Stories: Cases from the Iraq Coalition -- Chapter 8. Conclusion: Information, Constraint, and Democratic Foreign Policy -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Why do some democracies reflect their citizens' foreign policy preferences better than others? What roles do the media, political parties, and the electoral system play in a democracy's decision to join or avoid a war? War and Democratic Constraint shows that the key to how a government determines foreign policy rests on the transmission and availability of information. Citizens successfully hold their democratic governments accountable and a distinctive foreign policy emerges when two vital institutions-a diverse and independent political



opposition and a robust media-are present to make timely information accessible.Matthew Baum and Philip Potter demonstrate that there must first be a politically potent opposition that can blow the whistle when a leader missteps. This counteracts leaders' incentives to obscure and misrepresent. Second, healthy media institutions must be in place and widely accessible in order to relay information from whistle-blowers to the public. Baum and Potter explore this communication mechanism during three different phases of international conflicts: when states initiate wars, when they respond to challenges from other states, or when they join preexisting groups of actors engaged in conflicts.Examining recent wars, including those in Afghanistan and Iraq, War and Democratic Constraint links domestic politics and mass media to international relations in a brand-new way.