War and Democratic Constraint : : How the Public Influences Foreign Policy / / Philip B. K. Potter, Matthew A. Baum.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Baum, Matthew A.,; Potter, Philip B. K.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (280 p.) :; 37 line illus. 29 tables.

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.

Table of Contents

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