In War’s Wake: International Conflict and the Fate of Liberal Democracy

by Edited by Elizabeth Kier , Ronald R. Krebs

• ISBN13: 9780521157704
• ISBN10: 0521157706
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

War has diverse and seemingly contradictory effects on liberal democratic institutions and processes. It has led democracies to abandon their principles, expanding executive authority and restricting civil liberties, but it has also prompted the development of representative parliamentary institutions. It has undercut socioeconomic reform, but it has also laid the basis for the modern welfare state. This landmark volume brings together distinguished political scientists, historians, and sociologists to explore the impact of war on liberal democracy - a subject far less studied than the causes of war but hardly less important. Three questions drive the analysis: How does war shape the transition to and durability of democracy? How does war influence democratic contestation? How does war transform democratic participation? Employing a wide range of methods, this volume assesses what follows in the wake of war. It is an urgent question for scholars, and even more for citizens, especially in our anxious post-9/11 age.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: War and Democracy in Comparative Perspective	p. 1
War and Democratic Transitions: New and Durable Democracies?
Does War Influence Democratization	p. 23
Dodging a Bullet: Democracy's Gains in Modern War	p. 50
Armed Conflict and the Durability of Electoral Democracy	p. 67
War and Democratic Publics: Reshaping Political Participation?
The Effects of War on Civil Society: Cross-National Evidence from World War II	p. 97
Veterans, Human Rights, and the Transformation of European Democracy	p. 121
War and Reform: Gaining Labor's Compliance on the Homefront	p. 139
Spinning Mars: Democracy in Britain and the United States and the Economic Lessons of War	p. 162
War and Democratic States: Government by the People or Over the People?
International Conflict and the Constitutional Balance: Executive Authority after War	p. 187
Claims and Capacity: War, National Policing Institutions, and Democracy	p. 211
War, Recruitment Systems, and Democracy	p. 235
Concluding Reflections: What Wars Do	p. 253
References	p. 271
Index	p. 305
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