People respond to incentives: raising the benefit of a behavior produces more of it, raising the cost produces less; therefore reconstruction is fundamentally about whether occupiers can create rules that give citizens the incentive to pursue ends aligned with liberal democracy, and when those incentives are absent the reconstructed institutions unravel.

causalpending

Speaker

Christopher Coyne

Evidence Quote

the reconstruction process is all about incentives ... do citizens within Iraq or any country being occupied for that matter have the incentive to pursue ends that align with liberal democracy until the extent they do we'll see success and to the extent they don't they'll see failure

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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