POL208Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Democratic Peace Theory, Nicos Poulantzas, Bourgeoisie
22 Nov 2018
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Document Summary
Studying states, and the international system of states. Role of science is to dissect reality in order to discover important causal links. Science (political) is always a simplification, highlighting some things and putting others in the background. Theories try to help simplify the world by showing simpler causal theories. The big mac theory of international peace. Observation *no two countries that have a mcdonalds have ever fought a war against each other* Mcdonalds could be the key to peace (if every country had a mcdonalds) Observation *no two countries that have an elected democratic government have ever fought a war against each other* Democracy could be the key to peace (if every country had an elected democratic government) Democracies share common values, therefore hard to fight against each other. Who pays price for war? (aka not beneficiaries) Possess a permanent population (citizenship v nomads nation states) States and nation states are not the same thing.
