Christopher Coyne on Exporting Democracy after War

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2008

⏱️ 80 minutes

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Summary

Christopher Coyne of West Virginia University and George Mason University's Mercatus Center talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his book, After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy. They talk about the successes and failures of America's attempts to export democracy after a war. In some cases, Japan and Germany, for example, after World War II, American efforts have led to stability and democratic institutions. In many other cases, Cuba, Somalia, and Haiti, for example, and so far, Iraq, American efforts have failed, often repeatedly and have sometimes made things worse. Coyne tries to identify factors that lead to an improved likelihood of success or failure. Ultimately, he concludes that a non-interventionist posture accompanied by unilateral free trade is more likely to benefit citizens under repressive governments.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts
0:13.9	of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website is econtalk.org
0:21.2	where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast, and find links to
0:26.5	other information related to today's conversation. Our email address is mail at econtalk.org. We'd
0:33.6	love to hear from you. My guest today is Christopher Coyne, a professor of economics at West Virginia
0:41.4	University and a research fellow at George Mason University's Mercata Center. He is the author of
0:47.0	After War, the political economy of exporting democracy. Chris, welcome to econ talk. Hi Russ,
0:53.2	how are you? Thank you for having me. Our topic for today is your book After War. You apply the
0:57.9	economic way of thinking to the challenge of post-war reconstruction, particularly the attempts of the
1:03.2	United States to change institutions and create democracy where there was not democracy before.
1:09.4	Now, after the military part of the war in Iraq ended, it became clear that the post-war, the
1:15.4	After War part of the struggle was going to be the more challenging part of the US mission,
1:20.1	and it has not gone particularly well. In the early days of that attempt to create a democracy
1:30.3	there, many optimists pointed to Japan and Germany as countries where, despite seeming challenges
1:38.4	and barriers, democracy was successfully implemented under US supervision or actual coercion. They
1:46.9	thought, well, maybe Iraq will work out similarly, but as you point out, those are just two data points
1:50.8	and there are other examples of reconstruction the US has tried that have not gone well. So,
1:55.2	start by talking about some of those. Well, I actually begin the book by going back all the way
2:01.4	to one of the first foreign interventions that the US undertook, which was Cuba, and between 1898
2:08.5	and the early 1920s, the United States intervened in Cuba three times. You're not talking about the
2:14.3	Bay of Pigs. No, no. The first occupation was under President McKinley in 1898, and I think
2:20.9	that lasted until 1902, and we sent military troops down to basically overcome civil unrest and
	...

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