The construction of democracy: Political socialization through military engagement

The nature of the international system is shaped by social structures and social interaction as well as material capabilities and power considerations. A state's power is most often conceived of and measured in terms of the capacity of its military organizations to coerce and impose on others. Yet these same military institutions form an integral part of the political social structures of states. This study investigates to what extent and under what conditions US military engagement activities are associated with either liberalizing or authoritarian trends during the years 1972--2000 in three different types of political entities: consolidated democratic states, consolidated authoritarian states, and the middle ground of states.;The study covers over 160 countries to include the former republics of the Soviet Union and states of the Persian Gulf region. Multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazard regression modeling is the primary analytic tool. Kaplan-Meer estimation is used for initial bivariate assessment. The study incorporates five observable measures of US military engagement: (1) participant in US military education and training programs, (2) security ally of the United States, (3) US military presence in a country, (4) recipient of US military assistance, and (5) recipient of US military sales deliveries. The analysis also incorporates a country specific measure of Soviet influence that is used to gauge the hegemonic socialization influence exerted by the Soviet Union.;The results show US military engagement activities to be significantly and positively associated with liberalizing trends in all regime types, with the most pronounced effect for consolidated authoritarian states. US military-to-military contacts increased the probability that both authoritarian and middle ground regimes would undergo transition to a more liberal regime type. The results highlight how the dichotomization of regime type into democracy-nondemocracy categories might obscure important transition versus consolidation effects. The results also indicate that hegemonic socialization mechanisms work in the same hypothesized manner for both democratic and authoritarian states. The study provides evidence that identity-based socialization mechanisms can and do have important effects not just on the theoretical periphery of political science, but in the core area of national security.