Carina Tenaglia INR 3003 Reading Notes Post Exam 1 Week 6 James Lee Ray Does Democracy Cause Peace Introduction a Democratic Peace old idea basic form i Peaceful in nature w each other ii Less war prone statement HIGHLY DEBATED I II The History of the Idea a Kant believes that perpetual peace would only occur when states had civil constitutions establishing republics b Pres Wilson 1920s foundation for utopian discipline in Int l relations i Kissinger Wilson s American Exceptionalism dominant idea 1 Peace depends on promoting democratic institutions 2 Democracies do not make war against each other III Contemporary Origins of the Democratic Peace Proposition a Realism predominant during Cold War Era i Babst No wars have been fought between independent nations with elective governments between 1789 and 1941 ii Rummel Libertarian systems mutually preclude violence iii Natural relationship between regime type int l war proneness conflict iv Doyle constitutionally secure liberal states have yet to engage in war with 1 No two democratic states have ever fought an interstate war w each one another other a Peace democracy correlation b Three Basic Conceptual Problems i Defining an Interstate war 1 War between 2 independent countries resulting in 1000 battlefield deaths ii Definition of Democracy 1 Contested time dependent 2 Regimes can t be categorized in a consistent manner 3 To an extent the following have been considered to meet democratic criteria a Bourgeoisie Republics Fascist Dictatorships etc 4 Serving the Wishes of Constituents Citizens a Widespread suffrage civil rights etc different behaviors iii Scoring Democracy 1 Gurr colleagues give scores to democracies Polity III 2 Need to determine threshold of democracy to properly evaluate if war has ever actually taken place between democracies Impossible to sort states into democratic non democratic categories 3 IV c Competitive elections could be defined in many ways same w Fair Elections Analyzing Data Regarding the Democratic Peace Proposition a Probable answer until recently not many democratic states so interstate war between them would have been unlikely b Small Singer concluded that absence of wars between democratic states is c States have not necessarily fully escalated to war but have overtly threatened each statistically significant other power display i Many states are so geographically far from each other that war is less likely 1 Ex Burma v Bolivia or Chad v Chile ii Lack of information on geographical proximity of states their regimes etc has discounted a lot of findings d Correlation does not prove causation e Analysis that took into account more factors listed below more supportive of findings on Democratic Peace i Contiguity alliance ties economic wealth growth political stability power ratios Democracy s conflict reducing effect remains strong Bremer ii V Attacks on the Evidence in Support of Democratic Peace a Analysis through dyad pairings of the same regime types b Analysis through statistical techniques c Analysis regarding the Cold War Era and congregated democratic support together AGAINST communism common threat i Opposition leads to common interests leads to peace 1 Untrue b c smaller states ex LatAm fought against each other during this time not strong democracies ii Only time will tell if the larger growth of democratic states leads to war s d Alliance ties as an issue VI i Decrease in conflict pairs for states controlled variable in analysis e Democratization regime transitions make states significantly more war prone Theoretical Bases for the Democratic Peace Proposition a Rummel in 97 democracy is an important pacifying force b Normative explanations more persuasive than structural and have fared better in research c Dixon Raymond Democratic states are more likely to resort to dispute mechanism techniques like mediation arbitration peaceful settlements d Theory that leaders of democracies avoid fighting wars for fear of losing power i Can alter the state of the regime ii Democracies more likely to win the wars they DO engage in resources iii They choose their opponents more carefully iv They experience fewer battle deaths v They are more constrained to avoid war e Democracies other regimes leaders desire to remain in power f Democracies need to make credible commitments i Faced w greater audience costs if they back down VII Conclusion a Substantial empirical evidence suggesting that democratic states haven t aren t likely to initiate interstate wars against one another b However Democracy DOES cause peace Francis Fukuyama The End of History I Intro a The century that began full of self confidence in the ultimate triumph of the Western liberal democracy seems at its close to be returning full circle to where it started i Unbashed victory of economic and political liberalism b Triumph of the West Western idea i Evidenced by reforms major changes in 2 largest communist countries ii End of Cold War and end of history 1 End of history end point of mankind s ideological evolution and universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government a Believes that this idea will govern world in long run II Section 1 a Marx original idea of end of history communist utopia b Hegel most original foundation of the idea i Notion that mankind has progressed through primitive stages to present 1 Believes that history culminated in an absolute moment ii Hegel indirectly had a large impact through other theorists c WWI II forced societies in Europe North America to implement liberalization d Universal homogenous state contradictions resolved all human needs satisfied Section 2 a Hegel s beliefs i Did not believe real world could be made to conform ii Believed all human behavior is rooted in a prior state of consciousness b An empire whose economy is barely above the level of subsistence cannot III bankrupt its treasure indefinitely c Wall Street Journal School of thought i Deterministic materialism often points to stunning economic success of Asia evidence of viability of free markets d Free markets and stable political systems are necessary preconditions to capitalist economic growth e Countries have shifted from one strategy to another ex from central planning to capitalism as the result of the victory of one idea over another f Fukuyama believes that both economics and politics presuppose an autonomous prior state of consciousness that makes them possible IV Section 3 a Two major challenges to
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