Abstract
Recent work on conflict suggests that electoral systems impact foreign policy-making in important ways; however, the discipline has reached different conclusions regarding how different types of electoral systems affect conflict initiation. In this study we contend that legislators are more accountable individually in candidate-centred electoral systems which impacts a state’s decision to initiate interstate conflict. We test our argument using a time-series cross-sectional analysis of 54 democracies from 1975 to 2001. The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that candidate-centred electoral systems result in less conflict initiation than party-centric systems due to higher levels of individual accountability for legislative members.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 219-243 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Conflict, Security and Development |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 3 2016 |
Keywords
- Accountability
- candidate-centred Systems
- conflict initiation
- democracy
- electoral systems
- party-centred systems
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
- Political Science and International Relations