addition, with public ownership and free entry into a democratic-republican government, the foreign policy changes as well. All governments are expected to be expansionary, as explained above, and there is no reason to assume that a president's expansionary desires will be smaller than a king's. However, while a king may satisfy this desire through marriage, this route is essentially precluded for a president. He does not own the government controlled territory; hence, he cannot contractually combine separate territories. And even if he concluded inter-government treaties, these would not possess the status of contracts but constitute at best only temporary pacts or alliances, because as agreements concerning publicly-owned resources, they could be revoked at any time by other future governments. If a democratic ruler and a democratically elected ruling elite want to expand their territory and hence their tax base, then only a military option of conquest and domination is open to them. Hence, the likelihood of war will be significantly increased. 33
32 On the "logic" of government interventionism—its counterproductivity, inherent instability, and "progressive" character—see Ludwig von Mises, Critique of Interventionism (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1977); see also idem, Human Action, part 6: "The Hampered Market Economy."
For empirical illustrations of the decivilizing and demoralizing effects of redistributive policies see Banfield, The Unheavenly City Revisited; Charles Murray, Losing Ground (New York: Basic Books, 1984).
33 Prior to and long after the onset of the democratic-republican transformation of Europe with the French (and the American) Revolution, most prominent social philosophers—from Montesquieu, Rousseau, Kant, Say, to J.S. Mill—had essentially contended "That it was only the ruling classes [the king, the nobility] who wanted war, and that'the people,' if only they were allowed to speak for themselves, would opt enthusiastically for peace." Michael Howard, War and the Liberal Conscience (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1978), chaps. 1 and 2, p. 45. Indeed, Immanuel Kant, in his Perpetual Peace (1795), claimed a republican constitution to be the prerequisite for perpetual peace. For under a republican constitution,
Moreover, not only the likelihood but also the form of war will change. Typically, monarchical wars arise out of disputes over inheritances brought on by a complex network of interdynastic marriages and the irregular but constant extinction of certain dynasties. As violent inheritance disputes, monarchical wars are characterized by territorial objectives. They are not ideologically motivated quarrels but disputes over tangible properties. Moreover, since they are interdynastic property disputes, the public considers war the king's private affair, to be financed and executed with his own money and military forces. Further, as private conflicts between different ruling families the public expects and the kings feel compelled to recognize a clear distinction between combatants and noncombatants and to target their war efforts specifically against each other and their respective private property. As late as the eighteenth century, notes military historian Michael Howard,
on the continent commerce, travel, cultural and learned intercourse went on in wartime almost unhindered. The wars were the king's wars. The role of the good citizen was to pay his taxes, and sound political economy dictated that he should be left alone to make the money out of which to pay those taxes. He was required to participate neither in the decision out of which wars arose nor to take part in them once they broke out, unless prompted by a spirit of youthful adventure. These matters were arcana regni, the concern of the sovereign alone. 34
when the consent of the citizens is necessary to decide whether there shall be war or not, nothing is more natural than that, since they would have to decide
32 On the "logic" of government interventionism—its counterproductivity, inherent instability, and "progressive" character—see Ludwig von Mises, Critique of Interventionism (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1977); see also idem, Human Action, part 6: "The Hampered Market Economy."
For empirical illustrations of the decivilizing and demoralizing effects of redistributive policies see Banfield, The Unheavenly City Revisited; Charles Murray, Losing Ground (New York: Basic Books, 1984).
33 Prior to and long after the onset of the democratic-republican transformation of Europe with the French (and the American) Revolution, most prominent social philosophers—from Montesquieu, Rousseau, Kant, Say, to J.S. Mill—had essentially contended "That it was only the ruling classes [the king, the nobility] who wanted war, and that'the people,' if only they were allowed to speak for themselves, would opt enthusiastically for peace." Michael Howard, War and the Liberal Conscience (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1978), chaps. 1 and 2, p. 45. Indeed, Immanuel Kant, in his Perpetual Peace (1795), claimed a republican constitution to be the prerequisite for perpetual peace. For under a republican constitution,
Moreover, not only the likelihood but also the form of war will change. Typically, monarchical wars arise out of disputes over inheritances brought on by a complex network of interdynastic marriages and the irregular but constant extinction of certain dynasties. As violent inheritance disputes, monarchical wars are characterized by territorial objectives. They are not ideologically motivated quarrels but disputes over tangible properties. Moreover, since they are interdynastic property disputes, the public considers war the king's private affair, to be financed and executed with his own money and military forces. Further, as private conflicts between different ruling families the public expects and the kings feel compelled to recognize a clear distinction between combatants and noncombatants and to target their war efforts specifically against each other and their respective private property. As late as the eighteenth century, notes military historian Michael Howard,
on the continent commerce, travel, cultural and learned intercourse went on in wartime almost unhindered. The wars were the king's wars. The role of the good citizen was to pay his taxes, and sound political economy dictated that he should be left alone to make the money out of which to pay those taxes. He was required to participate neither in the decision out of which wars arose nor to take part in them once they broke out, unless prompted by a spirit of youthful adventure. These matters were arcana regni, the concern of the sovereign alone. 34
when the consent of the citizens is necessary to decide whether there shall be war or not, nothing is more natural than that, since they would have to decide
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