The contrast between the Japanese Emperor and Saddam Hussein is that the Emperor commanded the affection and respect of citizens and could coordinate them legitimately, whereas Saddam achieved internal peace only through coercion (jailing or killing threats), so keeping Saddam in power would not have replicated the Emperor's role—it would have required ongoing gunpoint coercion that large distrustful segments would reject.

causalpending

Speaker

Christopher Coyne

Evidence Quote

the only way he was able to get them to buy in when he was in power was at gunpoint so it would have been a terrible idea whereas the emperor had the affection and respect of all the Japanese

Source

Christopher Coyne on Exporting Democracy after War 04/07/2008EconTalk
Created: 6/15/2026, 9:29:02 AM

My Notes

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