Democracies go only fight autocrats and and and, um. That's my interpretation. I think that's a fair interpretation. Yono, murky empirical literature, so any interpretation is possible sometimes. But democracies do go to work. This is true wr they get a lot of cases. There is a private incentive there for the ruling cabal to turnd to violence. Because, not just because the costs of war are not ones that they bear entirely, but actually, that private incentive overwhelms and bepet the costs ofwar that they personally bear. Over centralized powers may be the most fundamental root of all conflict and warfare. And it's hardly because of this, obviously, thiss,
It's tempting to explain Russia's invasion of Ukraine with Putin's megalomania. Economist Chris Blattman of the University of Chicago talks about his book Why We Fight with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Blattman explains why only a fraction of rivalries ever erupt into violence, the five main reasons adversaries can't arrive at compromise, and the problem with trying to get into Putin's head (and why it's not all about Putin. Really).