War and Democratic Constraint: How the Public Influences Foreign Policy

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:
List of Figures and Tables ix Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1 Introduction: Looking for Democratic Constraint 1 Why Democratic Institutions Matter 3 The Role of Political Information within Democracies 4 The Recipe for Democratic Constraint 7 Effects on What? 9 Moving Forward 11 Chapter 2 Democracies Are Not Created Equal: A Theory of Democratic Constraint 14 Information, Accountability, and Principal-Agent Problems 15 An Uninformed, Inattentive Electorate 19 Political Opposition as Whistleblowers 21 Media Institutions and the Transmission of Information 28 Hearing the Whistleblowers-The Importance of the Press 32 Bringing Together Information Generation and Transmission 37 Foreign Policy Responsiveness and International Conflict Behavior 41 Initiation and the Democratic Peace 43 Reciprocation and Audience Costs 47 Coalition Formation 49 Conclusion and Next Steps 52 Chapter 3 Democratic Constraint, the Democratic Peace, and Conflict Initiation 53 Period and Structure of Analysis 56 Measuring Conflict Initiation 58 Measuring the Extent of Opposition with Political Parties 59 Measuring Media Access 60 Measuring Press Freedom 61 Additional Controls 64 Results 67 Democratic Constraint among Democracies 71 Alternative Measures of Conflict 73 The Independent Effects of Opposition and Access 74 Conclusion 75 Appendix 1: Statistical Tables and Robustness Tests 77 Appendix 2: The Role of the Internet 81 Chapter 4 Looking for Audience Costs in All the Wrong Places: Constraint and Reciprocation 86 Research Design 88 Results 90 Unpacking Militarized Disputes 92 Compellent Threats 94 The Problem of Perception 96 Conclusion 98 Appendix: Statistical Tables and Robustness Tests 99 Chapter 5 Willing and Politically Able: Democratic Constraint and Coalition Joining 103 Iraq (2003): Operation Iraqi Freedom 104 Afghanistan (2001): Operation Enduring Freedom 121 Conclusion 129 Appendix: Statistical Tables and Robustness Tests 130 Chapter 6 Downs Meets the Press: How Party Systems Shape the News 151 Mapping News Content onto the Downsian Premise 153 Cases and Data 156 Results 159 2004 and 2009 European Election Studies (EES) 161 Conclusion 163 Appendix: Statistical Tables, Robustness Tests, and Content Analysis Codebook 164 Chapter 7 Coalition Stories: Cases from the Iraq Coalition 193 Case Selection 194 The United Kingdom 198 Spain 205 Poland 210 Germany 213 Conclusion 220 Chapter 8 Conclusion: Information, Constraint, and Democratic Foreign Policy 222 Policy Implications 223 Recipe for a Watchdog Press: Some Prescriptions for Media Ownership 226 Technological Change, the Internet, and Satellite Television 229 Moving Forward 232 References 237 Index 251

About the Author :
Matthew A. Baum is the Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications and professor of public policy at Harvard University. He is the author of Soft News Goes to War and the coauthor of War Stories (both Princeton). Philip B. K. Potter is assistant professor of politics at the University of Virginia.

Review :
One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2015 "[A] groundbreaking study."--Foreign Affairs "This scholarly book is an important contribution to the role of political communication in foreign policy making. It is strongly recommended for foreign policy and political communication scholars and democratic peace theorists."--Choice "A very thoughtful study about war initiation which can be the start for a true sociology of democratic institutions and their impact on war and peace."--Thomas Lindemann, European Review of International Studies "Why are some democracies more sensitive than others to the foreign policy preferences of citizens? The answer that the book presents to this research question is innovative, thoroughly argued and consistently backed up by solid empirical research... A seminal reading recommended for all scholars interested in the way domestic factors influence foreign policy."--Cristian Nitoiu, Political Studies Review