The lesson from Japan, Germany, and the post-Civil-War U.S. is not that finding a national leader to rally around guarantees success; a national leader can maintain power for many reasons and can also work against the occupier's goals, and a genuinely legitimate leader opposing reconstruction could generate a worse outcome.

causalpending

Speaker

Christopher Coyne

Evidence Quote

it's also a possibility that they can work against the reconstruction and to the extent that they're actually a legitimate leader working against the goals of the occupiers can generate a perverse outcome

Source

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

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