Serfs, Soldiers, Citizens

Military Effectiveness and the Social Contract

By: Michael P Jasinski, Joshua T J Grunske

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Hardcover | 15 February 2025

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300 Pages

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Serfs, Soldiers, Citizens: Military Effectiveness and the Social Contract evaluates the democratic advantage theory of military effectiveness and advances a counterargument that military effectiveness is more closely related to patterns of wealth redistribution and social mobility. While these phenomena are often seen as inherent to democracies, in practice autocratic states can display those qualities, too. Additionally, both democracies and autocracies tend to change policies toward improving military effectiveness following wars that went poorly for them, and that shift does not always entail a move towards greater democracy. There are many instances of a country, following a defeat, adopting better policies on social mobility and wealth redistribution and yet become more autocratic, then displaying superior effectiveness in conflict in comparison with an earlier war. Autocratic states have an advantage of more rapid preparation for a war they anticipate, while democracies are better at improving their policies toward greater military effectiveness once engaged in a war.

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Serfs, Soldiers, and Citizens: Military Effectiveness and the Social Contract focuses on the relationship between national-level welfare state programs, broadly defined, and military effectiveness. The authors persuasively argue that robust national social welfare programs, which empower more ordinary citizens, correlate with more effective overall performance in war. Moreover, they find that this can be equally true for democratic and autocratic states. Gathering evidence from an array of nation's policies, this book offers a fresh angle on governments' promises to their citizens, in war and peace. --Gabriel Loiacono, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

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