Inward bound: Domestic institutions and military conflicts

International relations scholars are increasingly turning to the study of domestic politics to explain international behavior. In this article I argue that domestic institutions in democratic states greatly affect the propensity of a leader to use force when involved in an international dispute. Domestic institutions determine the rules of executive accountability as well as the degree to which an executive can control the conflict agenda vis-a-vis the legislature. I discuss how accountability and agenda control vary between parliamentary, presidential, and premier-presidential types of democracies. Using these variables. I generate a set of specific hypotheses regarding democratic conflict behavior. I test my hypotheses against alternative explanations for democratic behavior in two cases: The Suez Canal crisis in 1956 and the Bosnia conflict in 1995.