Dr. Brett Ashley Leeds
Democracy and Foreign Policy Consistency
A core criticism of democratic politics, going back at
least to Alexis de Toqueville, is that democracies are ill
suited to successful diplomacy. Because of frequent leadership
turnover and a need to appeal to the fickle opinion of the
public, democratic governments are unable to adhere to consistent
foreign policy positions and make credible commitments to
long-term behavior. A contrary view, however, asserts that
democratic political institutions are specifically designed
to mitigate the effects of leadership turnover by moderating
policy and constraining policy change; according to this
argument, leadership turnover in a democracy results in
smaller changes in policy than leadership turnover in non-democracies.
Through a study of changes in alliance politics involving
all countries of the world from 1816 to 2003, Dr. Leeds
will evaluate these competing arguments and reach conclusions
about the advantages and disadvantages of citizen influence
on external relations. Students will collect historical
information on the primary societal bases of support of
leaders of a variety of countries with different institutional
structures during the 19th and 20th centuries. They will
gain practical knowledge of different political structures
and coalitions as well as experience in collecting and organizing
data for statistical analysis and designing and conducting
hypothesis tests. In addition, students will be encouraged
to develop their own independent or collaborative research
projects on the relationships between domestic politics
and international relations.
Contact Information
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