Part of a project I am working on depends in large part on the findings in Reiter and Stam's "Democracies at War."

I am curious what others who have read it think about it.

Basic conclusions that interest me are:
Democracies prefer to fight wars where the odds of victory are largely in their favor; and
Democracies are more effective in war because of the their Army's leadership is chosen via merit.

Thanks