Abstract
Public opinion studies on war attitudes say little about civilians who are related to military service members. The authors argue that military "service-connected" individuals are missing voices in the research that examines public support for war. Using over 50,000 observations from the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, the authors estimate attitudes toward the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the use of US military troops in general. The authors find that service-connected civilians express greater support for war and the use of troops than civilians without such a connection. This study discusses the implications of these findings for theoretical advancements in the literature addressing war attitudes and the conceptualization of the "civil-military gap.".
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 391-412 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Armed Forces and Society |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs |
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State | Published - Jul 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Civil-military gap
- Public opinion
- War attitudes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Safety Research