Diverting domestic turmoil

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Amarasinghe, Ashani
• 署名单位: Monash University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2022.104608
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: Diversionary foreign policy; Domestic turmoil; football; connectivity

摘要

When faced with intense domestic turmoil, governments may strategically engage in foreign interactions to divert the public's attention away from pressing domestic issues. I test this hypothesis for a globally representative sample of 190 countries, at the monthly level, over the years 1997-2014. Using high-frequency data on media-reported events, I find robust evidence that governments resort to diversionary strategies in times of domestic turmoil and that such diversion takes the form of verbally aggressive foreign interactions. Diversionary interactions are typically targeted at countries closely linked along cultural and geographic dimensions, and at countries with low levels of state capability. Interestingly, I do not find evidence of these strategies being effective in deterring domestic turmoil. Taken together, these findings provide new insights on governments' systematic use of verbally aggressive foreign interactions as a short-term, low-cost, low-risk, strategic tool, to divert domestic turmoil. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.