enum base types

[rliq]

I'm trying to find you what is the 'point' of specifying a base type in an enum? What is the benefit of using...

enum State : int  // note the 'int'
{
	Initialise = -1,
	Process = 0,
	Finalise = 1
}

over...

enum State
{
	Initialise = -1,
	Process = 0,
	Finalise = 1
}

One incorrect assumption that I made was to assume you would be able to do...

Stage currentStage = Stage.Initialise;
int databaseField = currentStage;  // ultimately a field in a DataTable of type SqlDbType.Int

but it seems you still need to cast...

Stage currentStage = Stage.Initialise;
int databaseField = (int)currentStage;

So what is the reason for specifying a base type?

I do realise the 'int' is the default, I'm just talking in general. All I can think of is compiler optimisation or early binding of errors maybe...