Democracy promotion and Americans' support for troop use

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of citizens' belief in democracy promotion on their foreign policy opinion. While it has been debated whether idealism plays a significant role in accounting for citizens' opinion on foreign policy, few studies tackle the issue empirically. Two hypotheses are proposed and tested in this study in regards to the effect of an ideal, democracy promotion, on public opinion about troop deployments. It uses the surveys conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in 1998, 2004, 2008, and 2012. The findings show that democracy promotion is one of the most important sources for citizens' support for U.S. troop deployment. Also, the effect of democracy promotion depends on political context.