Assessing Military Intervention and Democratization: Supportive Versus Oppositional Military Interventions

Abstract

Democratization is a common foreign policy goal for established democratic states and has been promoted by a variety of tools from sanctions to military force. Research, to date, has been ambiguous with regards to the success of military intervention and democratization. Most studies agree that change occurs, although the nature of the change is debatable. This study sifts through the post-World War II military interventions to assess whether the regime change postintervention is democratic. The data suggest that democratically intended military interventions do not result in democratization. However, interventions that oppose the existing political elites do yield positive results in democratization.