Awards

• Winner of AAP/Professional and Scholarly Publishing Awards: Government and Political Science 2004
• Winner of AAP/Professional and Scholarly Publishing Awards: Government and Political Science 2004.

Overview

What happens to a society that has too many men? In this book the authors argue that, historically, high male-to-female ratios often trigger domestic and international violence. Most violent crime is committed by young unmarried males who lack stable social bonds. Although there is not always a direct cause-and-effect relationship, these surplus men often play a crucial role in making violence prevalent within society. Governments sometimes respond to this problem by enlisting young surplus males in military campaigns and high-risk public works projects. Countries wih high male-to-female ratios also tend to develop authoritarian political systems. The authors suggest that the sex ratios of many Asian countries, particularly China and India - which represent almost 40 per cent of the world's population - are being skewed in favour of males on a scale that may be unprecendented in human history. Through offspring sex selection (often in the form of sex-selective abortion and female infanticide), these countries are acquiring a disproportionate number of low-status young adult males, called ""bare branches"" by the Chinese. The authors argue that this surplus male population in Asia's largest countries threatens domestic stability and international security. The prospects for peace and democracy are dimmed by the growth of bare branches in China and India, and, they maintain, the sex ratios of these countries will have global implications in the 21st century.

Full Product Details

9780262083256

Table of Contents

Reviews

Bare Branches is an impressive and comprehensive account of sex ratios, especially in China, and may well give us reason to worry about that country's future and--in a globalise world--our own. - James Q. Wilson, The Wall Street Journal Connects the dots of a huge demographic trend that carries international implications... Policymakers should take note. - The Christian Science Monitor

Author Information

Valerie M. Hudson is Professor of Political Science and faculty affiliate at the David M. Kennedy School for International and Area Studies at Brigham Young University. She is the author of the books Culture and Foreign Policy and Artificial Intelligence and International Politics and coeditor of The Limits of State Autonomy: Societal Groups and Foreign Policy Formulation and Political Psychology and Foreign Policy. Andrea M. den Boer is a a Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

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