Contracting for labor in the military market is no different from contracting in labor markets generally, with one important exception. In a private labor market, prices adjust to clear the market as demand for labor rises or falls. But the purchaser of military labor is Uncle Sam.
If a country chooses to fight when it does not have to, citizens will disagree on the wisdom of fighting. Fewer men will see any necessity for military service, and so will have to be paid more to enlist.The more controversial the war, the higher the budgetary costs of a volunteer army compared to a war that can be staffed by conscripts.
Heads of state generally like conscription, as it allows them to pursue their personal goals with cheap labor. But for conscription, Napoleon could never have found the over half a million men he sent into Russia in 1812.The Russian campaign resembled the Vietnam war in that Napoleon, like Lyndon Johnson, fought to maintain political power, not out of military necessity.
The need to contract for an army establishes a sort of referendum(公投) on a war.
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