Question

On average, democratic states tend to win the wars they enter because reelection incentives (namely, the fear of getting voted out of office for policy failures) push democratic leaders to be cautious when going to war. Consequently, democratic leaders generally fight only when they have a high probability of victory. Group of answer choices True False

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is false

Explanation:

There are many other variables that correlate with the probability of winning or losing a war. Democraticies have entered wars throughout history and have not always won, and have not won in the majority of cases.

While it's true that the electoral process might make democratic leaders more wary of going to war, once they enter a war, they might not always win.

For example, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon all had concerns about the Vietnam War, but they still extended the war because they reckoned that the Viet-cong could not rivalize the US army. In the end, the US army lost that war.