PARTISANSHIP, MACROECONOMIC POLICY, AND US USES OF FORCE, 1949-1994

Have Democratic and Republican presidents used force more often than m embers of the other party under some circumstances during the postwar era? This article presents evidence that unemployment and inflation pr oduce differences in the likelihood of a diversionary use of force by presidents from different parties. Because Republicans are more reluct ant than Democrats to use potentially inflationary macroeconomic polic ies to reduce unemployment, they are more likely to use military force than Democratic presidents when unemployment is high. One the other h and, because Democrats are reluctant to employ macroeconomic policies that might control inflation at the cost of increased unemployment, th ey are more likely to use military force than Republicans when facing high inflation.