Editing Democratization (section)

==== War and national security ====
[[Jeffrey Herbst]], in his paper "War and the State in Africa" (1990), explains how democratization in European states was achieved through political development fostered by war-making and these "lessons from the case of Europe show that war is an important cause of [[state formation]] that is missing in Africa today."<ref name=Herbst>Herbst, Jeffrey. "War and the State in Africa." ''International Security'' (1990): 117–139.</ref> Herbst writes that war and the threat of invasion by neighbors caused European state to more efficiently collect revenue, forced leaders to improve administrative capabilities, and fostered state unification and a sense of national identity (a common, powerful association between the state and its citizens).<ref name=Herbst/> Herbst writes that in Africa and elsewhere in the non-European world "states are developing in a fundamentally new environment" because they mostly "gained Independence without having to resort to combat and have not faced a security threat since independence."<ref name=Herbst/> Herbst notes that the strongest non-European states, [[South Korea]] and [[Taiwan]], are "largely 'warfare' states that have been molded, in part, by the near constant threat of external aggression."<ref name=Herbst/>

Elizabeth Kier has challenged claims that total war prompts democratization, showing in the cases of the UK and Italy during World War I that the policies adopted by the Italian government during World War I prompted a fascist backlash whereas UK government policies towards labor undermined broader democratization.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kier|first=Elizabeth|title=War and Democracy: Labor and the Politics of Peace|date=2021|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-1-5017-5640-5|jstor=10.7591/j.ctv16pn3kw}}</ref>