IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v51y2007i3p569-582.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Purse Strings of Peace

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick J. McDonald

Abstract

This article examines how commerce promotes peace between states. It diverges from the commercial peace literature and its predominant focus on international trade by looking inside the domestic economy to see how its structure influences conflict. Drawing on selectorate theory, I argue that substantial quantities of public property generate fiscal autonomy for governments, strengthen their hold on the domestic reigns of power, and create opportunities to pursue more aggressive foreign policies. A series of statistical tests shows that greater quantities of publicly held assets increase the likelihood that a state will participate in military conflict. Given that the predominance of privately held property is one of the defining institutions of capitalism, these results support the claim that capitalism promotes peace.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick J. McDonald, 2007. "The Purse Strings of Peace," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(3), pages 569-582, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:51:y:2007:i:3:p:569-582
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00268.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00268.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00268.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Waterbury,John, 1993. "Exposed to Innumerable Delusions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521434973, September.
    2. Kornai, Janos, 1992. "The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198287766.
    3. Waterbury,John, 1993. "Exposed to Innumerable Delusions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521435499, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Stravers, 2021. "Pork, parties, and priorities: Partisan politics and overseas military deployments," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 38(2), pages 156-177, March.
    2. Strüver, Georg & Wegenast, Tim, 2011. "Ex oleo bellare? The Impact of Oil on the Outbreak of Militarized Interstate Disputes," GIGA Working Papers 162, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    3. Hailay Gebretinsae Beyene, 2015. "Does International Trade Reduce Political Disputes?," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 50(2), pages 99-117, May.
    4. Michael Mousseau, 2010. "Coming to Terms with the Capitalist Peace," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 185-192, May.
    5. Strüver, Georg, 2010. "Too Many Resources or Too Few? What Drives International Conflicts?," GIGA Working Papers 147, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    6. Kahn Yehudith & Arieli Tamar, 2020. "Post Conflict Normalization through Trade Preferential Agreements: Egypt, Israel and the Qualified Industrial Zones," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 26(4), pages 1-27, December.
    7. Michael Mousseau, 2012. "The Democratic Peace Unraveled: It’s the Economy," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1207, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    8. Sally Anderson & Mark Souva, 2010. "The Accountability Effects of Political Institutions and Capitalism on Interstate Conflict," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 54(4), pages 543-565, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liou, Chih-shian, 2014. "Rent-seeking at Home, Capturing Market Share Abroad: The Domestic Determinants of the Transnationalization of China State Construction Engineering Corporation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 220-231.
    2. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Warner, 1995. "Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 1-118.
    3. Waterbury, John, 1999. "The Long Gestation and Brief Triumph of Import-Substituting Industrialization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 323-341, February.
    4. Ali Burak Güven, 2012. "The IMF, the World Bank, and the Global Economic Crisis: Exploring Paradigm Continuity," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(4), pages 869-898, July.
    5. McCourt, Willy, 2003. "Political Commitment to Reform: Civil Service Reform in Swaziland," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1015-1031, June.
    6. William Ratliff, 1999. "Development and Civil Society in Latin America and Asia," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 565(1), pages 91-112, September.
    7. SchmitzJr, James A., 2001. "Government production of investment goods and aggregate labor productivity," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 163-187, February.
    8. Clements, Paul, 1999. "Informational Standards in Development Agency Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1359-1381, August.
    9. Jewellord Tolentino Nem Singh, 2014. "Towards Post-neoliberal Resource Politics? The International Political Economy (IPE) of Oil and Copper in Brazil and Chile," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 329-358, May.
    10. Richard Batley & Willy McCourt & Claire Mcloughlin, 2012. "Editorial," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 131-144, February.
    11. Schady, Norbert R., 1999. "Seeking votes - the political economy of expenditures by the Peruvian Social Fund (FONCODES), 1991-95," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2166, The World Bank.
    12. El-Haddad, Amirah, 2020. "Redefining the social contract in the wake of the Arab Spring: The experiences of Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    13. Caplan, Bryan, 2003. "The idea trap: the political economy of growth divergence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 183-203, June.
    14. Wibbels, Erik, 2006. "Dependency Revisited: International Markets, Business Cycles, and Social Spending in the Developing World," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(2), pages 433-468, April.
    15. Bugra Kalkan, 2016. "The Role Of The Economic Rents In The Political Transformation Of Turkey After The 1980s," Eurasian Journal of Social Sciences, Eurasian Publications, vol. 4(3), pages 1-13.
    16. Krieckhaus, Jonathan, 2002. "Reconceptualizing the Developmental State: Public Savings and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1697-1712, October.
    17. Adam Rogoda, 2021. "Middle East Green Islands of Economic Growth: Egyptian, Turkish and Iranian Economies during the Covid-19 Pandemic," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 3), pages 634-644.
    18. Kim, Byung Yeon, 1997. "Soviet Household Saving Function," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 30(2-3), pages 181-203.
    19. J. Kornai., 2002. "The System Paradigm," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, vol. 4.
    20. repec:zbw:bofitp:2008_015 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Helena Hannula, 2001. "Restructuring of the Estonian economy and the role of FDIs in it," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, in: Foreign Direct Investments in the Estonian Economy, volume 9, chapter 3, pages 91-174, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:51:y:2007:i:3:p:569-582. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.