%0 Journal Article
%T Defeat in Interstate War and the Probability of Political Liberalization
%A Gadi Heimann
%A Shlomo O. Goldman
%J Alternatives
%@ 2163-3150
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0304375419841248
%X The study examines whether defeat in war increases the probability that states will be involved in an international crisis (as a diversionary policy), enter a process of political liberalization, or alternatively, curtail political rights. More generally, it examines the impact of the leaders¡¯ weakness on their tendency to adopt these different strategies in order to overcome internal unrest. We look at defeat in war as an indicator of the leader¡¯s weakness since we can assume a strong correlation exists between the two. The results showed a significant positive connection to political rights liberalization, indicating that defeat in war increases the probability of liberalization in political rights but does not significantly increase the probability of de-liberalization and diversionary policies. Therefore, the study strengthens the claim that a leader¡¯s weakness tends to push him or her toward initiating political reforms
%K defeat
%K war
%K liberalization
%K de-liberalization
%K diversion
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0304375419841248