Forcing them to be free

Is it possible to force other slates to be free by imposing democracy on th em during military interventions! This article analyzes the historical rela tionship between U.S. military intervention and the democratization of targ et states from 1898-1992 using the Polity III data set to measure democracy . It argues that U.S. military intervention in and of itself does not have a positive impact on democracy. Active support for "free and fair" election s during those military interventions, however, has often had a profound an d positive impact on the democratization of target states. The relationship between American-sponsored elections and democracy remains positive and st atistically significant when intervention cases are compared with states th at have not experienced U.S. military intervention in multivariate models c ontrolling for the prior democratic experience and war participation of tar get states and American opposition to the government of the target state.