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ID: 114188

Illusion of democratic credibility / Downes, Alexander B; Sechser, Todd S

Sechser, Todd S	Journal Article
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Publication

2012.

Summary/Abstract

Do democracies make more effective coercive threats? An influential literature in international relations argues that democratic institutions allow leaders to credibly signal their resolve in crises, thereby making their threats more likely to work than threats by nondemocracies. This article revisits the quantitative evidence for this proposition, which we call the "democratic credibility hypothesis," and finds that it is surprisingly weak. Close examination of the data sets most commonly used to test this hypothesis reveals that they contain few successful democratic threats, or indeed threats of any kind. Moreover, these data sets' outcome variables do not properly measure the effectiveness of threats, and therefore yield misleading results. The article then reassesses the democratic credibility hypothesis using the Militarized Compellent Threats data set, a new data set designed specifically to test hypotheses about the effectiveness of coercive threats. The analysis indicates that threats from democracies are no more successful than threats from other states.

Key Words

Nondemocracies ; Democratic Institutions ; International Relations - Case Studies ; Democratic Credibility

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ID: 075226

Politics of hard choices: IMF programs and government spending / Nooruddin, Irfan; Simmons, Joel W

Nooruddin, Irfan	Journal Article
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Publication

2006.

Summary/Abstract

A central component of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs is reducing government budget deficits. We ask how domestic political considerations shape the distribution of cuts made by governments in IMF programs. Our central finding is that IMF programs shrink the role played by domestic politics. While democracies allocate larger shares of their budgets to public services in the absence of IMF programs, the difference between democracies and nondemocracies disappears under IMF programs. This result has important implications for our understanding of government spending priorities under different resource constraints.

Key Words

International Organization ; IMF ; International Monetary Fund ; Democracies ; Government Spending ; Nondemocracies

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ID: 056065

State-Sanctioned surfing, limided connectivity, and varied access to cyberspace in nondemocracies / Taubman , Geoffry L

Taubman , Geoffry L	Journal Article
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Key Words

cyberspace-China ; Internet ; Nondemocracies ; China-Cyberspace

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