"Democracies at War"

[Surferbeetle]

None of that really applies, although my work touches on a couple of these tangentially.

Taxation (funds for the war machine if nothing else), political representation, affordable innovation, and political opposition would seem to be four forces that a (democratic or not) nation state (assemblage) is subject to during war and peacetime.

I am trying to look at what type of war the U.S. is likely to be involved in future based not on military threat but on domestic political preference -- what type of war will the politician's prefer to fight (versus when will they prefer concessions or some other form of settlement).

You appear to be addressing two broadly different (internal) groups here: domestic political preference and the preference of politicians.

There are approximately 200 million individuals who are eligible to vote and 535+1 individuals who represent them…in the case of the US. What broad trends do you see that these groups have in common and disagree about? Understanding (via market segmentation studies for example), mobilizing, and sustaining coherent national will, seems to be a tricky and volatile business to be in, notwithstanding having to deal with an unpredictable external foe whose actions continually change the internal ‘equilibrium’. Add in regular rotation of the political representatives and it’s a wonder anything gets done at all.

The book finds that technology does not correlate to victory in battle, at least not as far as a democracy is concerned. Likewise, it finds that the economic advantage usually associated with a free market system is not the key to victory either.

How accurate/representative is your source compared to what one sees in the field? Does this correlate with what you have experienced?

Trying to avoid looking at it from this perspective.

Isn't war, at some level, a contest between hope and reality?