The democratic peace proposition: An agenda for critical analysis

Authors

  • Steve Chan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15355/epsj.4.1.70

Keywords:

Democratic peace, republicanism, libertarianism, preventive war

Abstract

The proposition that democracies are more peaceful than autocracies has spawned a huge literature. Much of the relevant quantitative research has shown that democracies indeed rarely, if ever, fight each other, although they are not necessarily less bellicose than autocracies in general. This essay seeks to identify several areas of concern that offer fruitful directions for further research to extend and clarify this proposition. These concerns relate to (1) conceptual clarification, (2) methodological assumptions, (3) causal interpretations, and (4) policy relevance.

References

Berinsky, A. 2007. “Assuming the Costs of War: Events, Elites, and American Public Support for Military Conflict.” Journal of Politics, Vol. 69, No. 4, pp. 975-997.

Bueno de Mesquita, B. and G.W. Downs. 2006. “Intervention and Democracy.” International Organization, Vol. 60, No. 3, pp. 627-649.

Bueno de Mesquita, B. and D. Lalman. 1992. War and Reason: Domestic and International Imperatives. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Bueno de Mesquita, B., J.D. Morrow, R.M. Siverson, and A. Smith. 1999. “An Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 93, No. 4, pp. 791-807.

Bueno de Mesquita, B. and R.M. Siverson. 1995. “War and the Survival of Leaders: A Comparative Study of Regime Types and Political Accountability.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 89, No. 4, pp. 841-855.

Bueno de Mesquita, B., R.M. Siverson, and G. Woller. 1992. “War and the Fate of Regimes: A Comparative Analysis.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 86, No. 3, pp. 638-646.

Bueno de Mesquita, B., A. Smith, R.M. Siversion, and J.D. Morrow. 2003. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Chan, S. 1997. “In Search of Democratic Peace: Problems and Promises.” Mershon International Studies Review, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 59-91.

Chan, S. 2008. “Progress in the Democratic Peace Research Agenda.” Mimeo. Boulder: University of Colorado.

Chan, S. and W. Safran. 2006. “Public Opinion as a Constraint against War: Democracies’ Responses to Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Foreign Policy Analysis, Vol. 2, pp. 137-156.

Doyle, M.W. 1983a. “Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs: Part 1.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 205-235.

Doyle, M.W. 1983b. “Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs: Part 2.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 323-353.

Doyle, M.W. 1986. “Liberalism and World Politics.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 80, No. 4, pp. 1151-1169.

Doyle, M.W. 2005. “Three Pillars of the Liberal Peace.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 99, No. 3, pp. 463-466.

Eichenberg, R.C. 2005. “Victory Has Many Friends: U.S. Public Opinion and the Use of Military Force.” International Security, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 140-177.

Farber, H.S. and J. Gowa. 1995. “Polities and Peace.” International Security, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 123-146.

Farber, H.S. and J. Gowa. 1997. “Common Interests or Common Politics?” Journal of Politics, Vol. 59, No. 2, pp. 393-417.

Fearon, J.D. 1994a. “Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 88, No. 3, pp. 577-594.

Fearon, J.D. 1994b. “Signaling Versus the Balance of Power and Interests: An Empirical Test of a Crisis Bargaining Model.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 236-269.

Fearon, J.D. 1995. “Rationalist Explanations of War.” International Organization, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 379-414.

Gartzke, E. 2007. “The Capitalist Peace.” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 166-191.

Gates, S., H. Hegre, M.P. Jones, and H. Strand. 2006. “Institutional Inconsistency and Political Instability: Polity Duration, 1800-2000.” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 893-908.

Gaubatz, K.T. 1999. Elections and War: The Electoral Incentive in the Democratic Politics of War and Peace. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Gelpi, C.F., P. Feaver, and J. Reifler. 2005/06. “Success Matters: Casualty Sensitivity and the War in Iraq.” International Security, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 7-46.

Gelpi, C.F., P. Feaver, and J. Reifler. 2008. Paying the Human Costs of War: American Public Opinion and Casualties in Military Conflicts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Gibler, D.M. 2007. “Bordering on Peace: Democracy, Territorial Issues, and Conflict.” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 509-532.

Gleditsch, K.S. 2002. All Politics Is Local: The Diffusion of Conflict, Integration, and Democratization. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Global Peace Index: 2008 Methodology, Results & Findings. New South Wales, Australia. www.visionofhumanity.org.

Hermann, M.G. and C.W. Kegley, Jr. 1996. “Ballots, A Barrier against the Use of Bullets and Bombs: Democratization and Military Intervention.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 436-459.

Howell, W.G. and J.C. Pevehouse. 2007. While Dangers Gather: Congressional Check on Presidential War Powers. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Huntley, W. 1996 “Kant’s Third Image: Systematic Sources of the Liberal Peace.” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 45-76.

Ireland, M.J. and S.S. Gartner. 2001. “Time to Fight: Government Type and Conflict Initiation in Parliamentary Systems.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 547-568.

Jentleson, Bruce W. 1992. “The Pretty Prudent Public: Post-Vietnam American Opinion on the Use of Military Force.” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 47-74.

Jentleson, B.W. and R.L. Britton. 1998. “Still Pretty Prudent: Post-Cold War American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 395-417.

Kant, I. 1795 (1957). Perpetual Peace. Translated by L.W. Beck. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.

Kaufman, C. 2004 “Threat Inflation and the Failure of the Marketplace of Ideas: The Selling of the Iraq War.” International Security, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 5-48.

Kaufman, C. 2005. “Selling the Market Short: The Marketplace of Ideas and the Iraq War.” International Security, Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 196-207.

Kegley Jr., C.W. and M. Hermann. 1995. “Military Intervention and the Democratic Peace.” International Interactions, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 1-21.

Kegley Jr., C.W. and M. Hermann. 1996. “How Democracies Use Intervention: A Neglected Dimension in Studies of the Democratic Peace.” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 309-322.

Layne, C. 1994. “Kant or Cant: The Myth of Democratic Peace.” International Security, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 5-49.

Leblang, D. and S. Chan. 2003. “Explaining Wars Fought by Established Democracies: Do Institutional Constraints Matter?” Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 4, pp. 385-400.

Levy, J.S. 1989. “The Causes of War: A Review of Theories and Evidence,” pp. 209-333 in P.E. Tetlock, J.L. Husbands, R. Jervis, P.C. Stern, and C. Tilly, eds. Behavior, Society, and Nuclear War. New York: Oxford University Press.

Levy, J.S. 2008. “Preventive War and Democratic Politics.” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 1-24.

Levy, J.S. and J.R. Gochal. 2001. “Democracy and Preventive War: Israel and the 1956 Sinai Campaign.” Security Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 1-49.

MacMillan, J. 2003. “Beyond the Separate Democratic Peace.” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 233-243.

Maoz, Z. 1998. “Realist and Cultural Critiques of the Democratic Peace.” International Interactions, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 1-89.

Maoz, Z. and B.M. Russett. 1993. “Normative and Structural Causes of Democratic Peace, 1946-1986.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 87, No. 3, pp. 624-638.

Meernik, J. 1996. “U.S. Military Interventions and the Promotion of Democracy.” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 391-402.

Morgan, C.T. 1993. “Democracies and War: Reflections on the Literature.” International Interactions, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 197-203.

Morrow, J.D. 2002. “Understanding International Conflict: Microfoundations, the Democratic Peace, and Offense-Defense Theory,” pp. 172-196 in I. Katznelson and H.V. Milner, eds. Political Science: The State of the Discipline. New York: Norton.

Mueller, J.E. 1973. War, Presidents, and Public Opinion. New York: Wiley.

Palmer, G.G., R.R. London, and P.M. Regan. 2004. “What’s Stopping You? The Sources of Political Constraints on International Conflict Behavior in Parliamentary Democracies.” International Interactions, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 1-24.

Paris, R. 2004. At War’s End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Peceny, M. 1999. Democracy at the Point of Bayonets. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Peceny, M., C. Beer, and S. Sanchez-Terry. 2002. “Dictatorial Peace?” American Political Science Review, Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 15-26.

Pickering, J. and E. Kisangani. 2006. “Political, Economic, and Social Consequences of Foreign Intervention.” Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 3, pp. 363-37.

Pickering, J. and M. Peceny. 2006. “Forging Democracy at Gunpoint.” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 539-560.

Polachek, S.W. “How Trade Affects International Interactions.” Economics of Peace and Security Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2007), pp. 60-68.

Ray, J.L. 1993. “War Between Democracies: Rare, or Nonexistent?” International Interactions, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 251-276

Ray, J.L. 1998. “Does Democracy Cause Peace?” Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 1, pp. 27-46.

Reiter, D. and E.R. Tillman. 2002. “Public, Legislative, and Executive Constraints on the Democratic Initiation of Conflict.” Journal of Politics, Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 810-826.

Ripsman, N.M. and J.S. Levy. 2007. “The Preventive War that Never Happened: Britain, France, and the Rise of Germany in the 1930s.” Security Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 32-67.

Rosato, S. 2003. “The Flawed Logic of Democratic Peace Theory.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 97, No. 4, pp. 585-602.

Rummel, R.J. 1979. War, Power, Peace. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Rummel, R.J. 1981. The Just Peace. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Rummel, R.J. 1983. “Libertarianism and International Violence.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 27-71.

Rummel, R.J. 1985. “Libertarian Propositions on Violence Within and Between Nations: A Test Against Published Research Results.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 419-455.

Russett, B.M. 1990. Controlling the Sword: The Democratic Governance of National Security. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Russett, B.M. and J.R. Oneal. 2001. Triangulating Peace: Democracy, Interdependence, and International Organizations. New York: Norton.

Russett, B.M. and H. Starr. 2000. “From Democratic Peace to Kantian Peace: Democracy and Conflict in the International System,” pp. 93-128 in M.I. Midlarsky, ed. Handbook of War Studies, Vol. II. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Schultz, K.A. 1999. “Do Democratic Institutions Constrain or Inform? Contrasting Two Institutional Perspectives on Democracy and War.” International Organization, Vol. 53, No. 2, pp. 233-266.

Schultz, K.A. 2001a. “Looking for Audience Costs.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 32-60.

Schultz, K.A. 2001b. Democracy and Coercive Diplomacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schweller, R.L. 1992. “Domestic Structure and Preventive War: Are Democracies More Pacific?” World Politics, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 235-269.

Silverstone, S.A. 2007. Preventive War and American Democracy. London: Routledge.

Thompson, W. 1996. “Democracy and Peace: Putting the Cart Before the Horse?” International Organization, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 141-174.

Trachtenberg, M. 2007. “Preventive War and U.S. Foreign Policy.” Security Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1-31.

Vanhanen, T. 2000. “A New Dataset for Measuring Democracy, 1810-1998.” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 251-265

Waltz, K.N. 1979. Theory of International Politics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Ward, M.D., R.M. Siverson, and X. Cao. 2007. “Disputes, Democracies, and Dependencies: A Reexamination of the Kantian Peace.” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 583-601.

Weeks, J. 2008. “Autocratic Audience Costs: Regime Type and Signaling Resolve.” International Organization, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 35-64.

Downloads

Published

2009-01-01

How to Cite

Chan, S. (2009). The democratic peace proposition: An agenda for critical analysis. The Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.15355/epsj.4.1.70

Issue

Section

Articles

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.