Consider also that gov't expenditures tend to decrease at the end of a war. But the period surrounding the end of a war -- either the protests leading to the ce

Consider also that gov't expenditures tend to decrease at the end of a war. But the period surrounding the end of a war -- either the protests leading to the cease of hostility (remember, the resolution of their time axis is only whole years), or the jockeying for political power in the wake of the war -- is bound to be unstable. Thus, there's an obvious explanation for political "chaos" in periods when government expenditures decline. Indeed, I bet with some research, you could generalize much more than that. Governments don't like to cut expenditures. Something needs to precipitate that action. The very thing that causes the cuts may also be causing the political instability.