TY - JOUR
T1 - Domestic Political Consequences of International Rivalry
AU - Bak, Daehee
AU - Chávez, Kerry
AU - Rider, Toby
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2017-JCJQ-ZD-024).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - Given the conventional claim that external threats increase internal cohesion and government capacity, cross-country studies have examined how interstate conflict events influence domestic politics. This article reevaluates the in-group and out-group mechanisms by examining how international strategic rivalry, which indicates the presence of persistent external threats even in the absence of military conflict, affects domestic political competition. An alternative explanation suggests that the effect of external threats on political incentives of domestic actors differs between regime supporters and oppositions. We posit that the presence of international threats from rival states inflames domestic unrest and oppositions’ antiregime challenges, while making governments rely more on repressive tactics given resource constraints and a high level of domestic political intolerance. In addition, we propose that the domestic consequences of international rivalry are heterogeneous depending on the characteristics of political systems and the level of threat perception. Empirical tests reveal robust evidence for the hypotheses.
AB - Given the conventional claim that external threats increase internal cohesion and government capacity, cross-country studies have examined how interstate conflict events influence domestic politics. This article reevaluates the in-group and out-group mechanisms by examining how international strategic rivalry, which indicates the presence of persistent external threats even in the absence of military conflict, affects domestic political competition. An alternative explanation suggests that the effect of external threats on political incentives of domestic actors differs between regime supporters and oppositions. We posit that the presence of international threats from rival states inflames domestic unrest and oppositions’ antiregime challenges, while making governments rely more on repressive tactics given resource constraints and a high level of domestic political intolerance. In addition, we propose that the domestic consequences of international rivalry are heterogeneous depending on the characteristics of political systems and the level of threat perception. Empirical tests reveal robust evidence for the hypotheses.
KW - domestic cohesion
KW - international rivalry
KW - state centralization
KW - state repression
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073997030&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0022002719876349
DO - 10.1177/0022002719876349
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073997030
VL - 64
SP - 703
EP - 728
JO - Journal of Conflict Resolution
JF - Journal of Conflict Resolution
SN - 0022-0027
IS - 4
ER -