POL 13000 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Capital Market, Liberal Democracy, Democratic Peace Theory
29 Mar 2018
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Topic: Democratic peace theory
Objectives:
• Theory of democracy and war
• Will democratization bring about peace?
Democratic peace theory
• Democratic peace asks
o Is there be a relationship between type of state and propensity of war?
• Thesis: there is something in the internal makeup of democratic states that prevents them from
fighting one another despite the fact that they are not less conflict prone than no democracies
• Therefore: universal democracy = universal peace
Democratic peace theory
• Part of the justification for ware in Iraq: introduce democracy as the only long-term solution to
problem of terrorism and peace in region
• Not just a aadei deate: people otiue to put theseles at risk i pursuit ased o the
assumption that democratization brings peace
Origins of democratic peace thesis
• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
o 1795 Perpetual peace: A philosophical sketch
• Articles of self-executing peace
o States based on republican institutions
o Commitment to peace based on recognition of common rights of all human beings
o Cosmopolitan order: voluntary trade, tourism, recognize common humanity and welcome
refugees
• Institutions reflect will of people: people have rational self-interest in peace
Applying Kant
• Democratic states are in general about as conflict – and war – prone as non-democracies
• However,
o Over the last two centuries, democracies have rarely clashed with one another in violent or
potentially violent conflict
o And have virtually never fought one another in a full-scale international war
• “o, as Kat o to soethig? Politial sietists thik so…
Visions of a democratic peace: Norms
• Democratic norms: political conflict in democracies are resolved through compromise rather than
through the elimination of opponents
• Nondemocratic norms: political conflicts in nondemocratic regimes more likely to be conducted and
resolved through violence and coercion
Visions of a democratic peace: Norms
• Democracies in confrontation
o Can apply democratic norms in interaction and prevent most conflicts (bottom-up vision of
international norms)
• Democratic state vs non-democratic state
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