| There is a general belief that carrots and sticks work best when used together. Policy makers are often admonished to combine both strategies when using economic statecraft. Yet few if any of the available theories provide a single framework for thinking about both positive and negative sanctions. The current volume seeks to demonstrate that a theoretical approach focused on the issue of regime type (i.e., are the actors democracies or autocracies), and its subsequent affects on bargaining, can illuminate both of these topics. Specifically, democratic institutions provide greater transparency in negotiations leading to increased levels of success when either negative or positive sanctions are employed. Also, they may allow the leaders of states targeted by sanction to be more flexible in their response by lowering the overall cost of failure and loss of office. These basic assertions are tested using both comparative case studies and statistical analysis. Regime type is found to be a key predictor of the outcome of both positive and negative sanctions. |
