Public Support for the Use of Force in Weak States

• In Event: Public Opinion Research in Taiwan: Old Topics and New Angles

Abstract

Extant literature on public opinion and war has two limitations: 1) most cases focus on Western great powers, and 2) conflict scenarios often do not directly intrude the public’s living space. This context, however, is far from the environment that most countries operate in, where they could be weaker than their rivals and citizens often would have to face a war head-on if it rises. These reasons lead us to question whether patterns of public support for war would be different in weak states. Thus, we hypothesize that the public in these countries: 1) will be more heavily swayed by external factors such as foreign assistance when making war decisions, as it increases the likelihood of success in combat, and 2) will be more sensitive to information of combat casualties as it directly threatens their personal safety. In this paper, we focus on a young democracy, the Republic of China on Taiwan, as the country is bracing itself for a growing Chinese military threat. We conducted and analyzed multiple surveys and experiments to examine how the public make decisions about a potential conflict in a weak state setting. The findings confirm our hypotheses and provide both theoretical and policy insights.

Authors

• Kuan-Sheng Wu, Purdue University

• Yao-Yuan Yeh, University of St. Thomas

• Fang-Yu Chen, Michigan State University

• Austin Horng-En Wang, University of Nevada, Las Vegas