Social Revolution, the State, and War: How Revolutions Affect War-Making Capacity and Interstate War Outcomes

Democracy has been the primary focus of our efforts to understand the impact of domestic institutions on processes of international conflict. In this article, we examine how a particular nondemocratic regime type, postrevolutionary states, affects military capabilities and war outcomes. Drawing on s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of conflict resolution 2012-06, Vol.56 (3), p.439-466
Main Authors: Carter, Jeff, Bernhard, Michael, Palmer, Glenn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armed Forces
Conflict resolution
Datasets
Democracy
Dyadic relations
Economic resources
International Conflict
International conflicts
Military and politics
Military defense
Military expenditure
Military policy
Modeling
Modernization
Political regimes
Political revolutions
Prediction
Revolution
Revolutions
Social Class
Social Revolution
Social revolutions
Studies
War
World wars
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Summary:Democracy has been the primary focus of our efforts to understand the impact of domestic institutions on processes of international conflict. In this article, we examine how a particular nondemocratic regime type, postrevolutionary states, affects military capabilities and war outcomes. Drawing on scholarship that conceptualizes revolutions as a unique class of modernizing events that result in stronger state structures, we argue that postrevolutionary states should be better able to mobilize populations and economic resources for military purposes. Tests performed on a comprehensive sample of twentieth-century states and interstate wars confirm our predictions: postrevolutionary states have larger, better funded militaries and achieve more successful war outcomes.
ISSN:0022-0027
1552-8766
DOI:10.1177/0022002711431796