Organizing societies for war: Domestic pressures for and foreign policy consequences of militarization in the United States and Great Britain, 1900-1985.

Abstract

This research examines the extent to which: (a) the US and British societies were militarized during the 20th century, (b) societal militarization and the violent foreign policy of the state are part of a self-amplifying feedback, and (c) symbolic politics contribute to the militarization of societies. The temporal domain covered the years 1900 to 1985, with data generated at four equidistant intervals per each decade. Data analysis relied primarily on linear regression procedures, including Generalized Least Squares and Two Staged Least Squares estimators. Militarization was defined as a societal level phenomenon; an index was developed based on the degree of civil participation in the preparations for war, with data calculated as a percentage of the labor force. Predictors of militarization were: (a) the degree of technological development, (b) level of militarization at the previous period, (c) existential threat, (d) the maintenance of the perception of a threat, and (e) the dispute behavior of the state. Predictors of the violent foreign policy of the state included: (a) the degree to which the society was militarized, (b) the concentration of material capabilities within the global system, and (c) system/bloc leadership. The feedback between societal militarization and the violent behavior of the state was modelled as a system of simultaneous equations. The ratios of war toys and war movies to the total number of toys and movies offered for sale in each year were used as indicators of the societal symbols that contribute to the development of patriotic attitudes. These ratios were correlated with fluctuations in the extent of militarization, and the net number of articles in the mass media reporting positively on military issues. The results of these analyses suggest that: (a) there is tentative support for the hypothesized feedback between societal militarization and the violent foreign policy of the state, (b) societal symbols appear to contribute to the militarization of society, and (c) steps to demilitarize should take into account not only the international environment, but also points 'a' and 'b'.