Historical Perspective on Public Support for the Draft: War Costs and Military Service

Abstract What shapes public support for military missions? Existing scholarship points to, on the one hand, individuals’ affiliations and predispositions (such as political partisanship and gender), and, on the other hand, factors that shape a rational cost–benefit analysis (notably, mission objectives, the prospects for victory, and the magnitude and distribution of costs). We argue that public opinion is also shaped by beliefs about why soldiers voluntarily enlist. Using novel survey data and an experiment, deployed to a nationally representative sample of Americans, we test how four conceptions of soldiering affect support for a prospective military operation. We find, in observational data, that believing that a soldier is a good citizen or patriot bolsters support for the mission, while believing that a soldier has enlisted because he wants the material benefits of service or has “no other options” undermines support. These results support our causal argument: Americans’ attitudes toward military missions are shaped by their perception of whether the soldier has consented to deployment rather than by feelings of social obligation. This article has implications for debates on the determinants of public support for military missions and the relationship between military service and citizenship in democracies.

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Who Gets to Have a DREAM? Examining Public Support for Immigration Reform

International Migration Review ◽

10.1177/0197918319833924 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 54 (2) ◽

pp. 527-558 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Geoffrey P. R. Wallace ◽

Sophia Jordán Wallace

Keyword(s):

Military Service ◽

Public Attitudes ◽

Public Support ◽

College Education ◽

Armed Forces ◽

The United States ◽

Immigration Reform ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Mass Attitudes ◽

Attitudes Toward Immigration

This article assesses how different notions of citizenship shape mass attitudes toward immigration reform. We examine the underpinnings of the military service and college education provisions that were at the center of the 2010 DREAM Act, which sought to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrant youth in the United States. Employing a survey experiment on a nationally representative US sample, we unpack the extent to which the mass public is willing to support immigration reform based on criteria tied to undocumented immigrants’ educational attainment or enlistment in the armed forces. While education has little effect on its own, military service significantly increases public support for a pathway to citizenship. The positive effect of military service endures when it is paired with less popular provisions, suggesting that a military criterion can serve as a basis of support for broader immigration legislation. Moreover, the effects are strongest for those groups who are traditionally viewed as being most opposed to immigration reforms that expand access to citizenship. The results of this study have implications for public attitudes toward immigration, the persistence of the citizen-soldier ideal, and the importance of framing in the policy-making process.

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Missing Voices

Armed Forces & Society ◽

10.1177/0095327x11428786 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 38 (3) ◽

pp. 391-412 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

James S. Krueger ◽

Francisco I. Pedraza

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Military Service ◽

Public Support ◽

Service Members ◽

Congressional Election ◽

Election Study ◽

Us Military ◽

Military Service Members ◽

War In Iraq

Public opinion studies on war attitudes say little about civilians who are related to military service members. The authors argue that military “service-connected” individuals are missing voices in the research that examines public support for war. Using over 50,000 observations from the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, the authors estimate attitudes toward the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the use of US military troops in general. The authors find that service-connected civilians express greater support for war and the use of troops than civilians without such a connection. This study discusses the implications of these findings for theoretical advancements in the literature addressing war attitudes and the conceptualization of the “civil–military gap.”

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History, Memory and Legend: Contextualizing Joymoti Utsav in Assam

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities ◽

10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.22 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Suranjana Barua ◽

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Historical Perspective ◽

Public Support ◽

Feminist Movement ◽

Literary Genres ◽

The Public ◽

Historical Figure ◽

National Sentiment ◽

Cultural Movement

This paper traces the inception, emergence and relevance of the celebration of a historical figure of Assam – Joymoti – as the Joymoti Utsav (Joymoti Festival). With the first attested public celebration of the festival in Upper Assam in 1914, Joymoti Utsav was a landmark public celebration on multiple counts. Firstly, it created a feminist and nationalist consciousness in the region through its celebration of Joymoti – an Ahom princess; secondly, it marked public support to celebration of an ideal female figure whose qualities and character women were encouraged to aspire to; thirdly, it followed and also spearheaded a socio-cultural movement that found expression in literature and arts including the first Assamese movie Joymoti in 1934; fourthly, it brought together people and organizations in the making of a legacy that gave direction to the feminist movement in Assam thereby establishing it as a major socio-cultural feminist festival of Assam. This paper traces the emergence of this iconic festival in Upper Assam, its role in establishing feminist ideals, carving out a distinct regional history and nurturing national sentiment, its depiction in various literary genres of the 20th century and the current relevance of the festival in Assam. In doing so, the paper locates Joymoti Utsav in a socio-historical perspective in the context of Assam while crediting it with creating a feminist consciousness in the public discourse of early twentieth century Assam.

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Eritrea: The Everyday Politics of Mass Militarization

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1814 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer Riggan

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Military Service ◽

Military Training ◽

Civil Liberties ◽

Public Support ◽

Nation Building ◽

National Service ◽

Service Program ◽

Labor Conditions ◽

The Military

Eritrea has a long history as a heavily militarized nation, dating back to its 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia. Militarization is a core component of Eritrean nationalism and state formation, which is arguably forged out of war but is also implicated in Eritrea’s problematic human rights record. Following Eritrea’s 1991 independence, the country was poised to democratize and liberalize. At that time, the country also began an intensive process of nation-building of which militarization was a central part. In 1995, Eritrea introduced the national service program. Eritrea’s national/military service, which requires 6 months of military training and 12 months of free military or civil service for all Eritreans (male and female), initially enjoyed widespread public support although there were always concerns about harsh living and labor conditions. In 1998, a border war with Ethiopia broke out. At this time, those who had military training in national service were recalled. Although fighting ended in 2000, the border war deepened Eritrea’s adherence to militarization as a key strategy of national defense, nation-building, and development. A condition of no-peace, no-war followed the border war. The long period of no-war, no-peace with Ethiopia allowed Eritrea’s president, Isaias Afewerki, to consolidate his power, deepen authoritarian rule, and extend the national service program indefinitely. The indefinite extension of national service meant that conscripts were not demobilized and new recruits into national service could not be assured that they would ever be released. Due to the indefinite extension of military service, harsh conditions in the military, and extreme punishments for those who try to escape the military, Eritrea’s national/military service requirement is at the center of concern about human rights and civil liberties in Eritrea. Militarization has since become fused with state control and punishment, leading to human rights and civil liberties violations and the mass flight of close to half a million Eritreans over the past decades. Despite the announcement in summer of 2018 that Eritrea and Ethiopia had finally agreed to peace, no one has been released from the military and Eritreans continue to flood out of the country to avoid national service conditions which have been equated with slavery.

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Finding the Path to Attitude Change on Transgender Rights

Transforming Prejudice ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190068882.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 54-82

Author(s):

Michelson and

Keyword(s):

Attitude Change ◽

Military Service ◽

Public Support ◽

Emotional Reactions ◽

Transgender People ◽

Public Issues ◽

The Core ◽

Access Rights ◽

The Military ◽

The U.S

Access to public restrooms and transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military are the two most visible public issues related to transgender rights in recent American history. This chapter describes several randomized public opinion experiments testing how to increase public support for those policies. One experiment finds that framing transgender bathroom access as about freedom or safety does little to increase support for transgender bathroom access rights; although consistent with opposition advertising campaigns, those frames can generate significant decreases in support. Elite cues and framing of the military service issue as about equality and integrity show more promise in increasing support for transgender rights. The studies in this chapter serve as the core of Identity Reassurance Theory and its central tenets about bolstering self-esteem and finding the optimal messaging strategy to mitigate emotional reactions.

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