Monday, July 04, 2005

Brad DeLong's Grasping for the Democratic Peace Theory


Now, of course, that has to be qualified.








  1. Anonymous3:23 PM

    Perhaps the reason that democracies don't make war upon one another, but will happily wage war upon totalitarian nations is that the policies of democracies are, to some degree, in a constant state of flux. As new administrations come and go, the diplomatic playing field changes providing new possibilities for international interactions other than warfare (e.g. diplomatic negotiation). This happens quite often with democracies, but in totalitarian states, there is one administration in power for an extended period of time. Diplomacy is still possible with a dictatorship, but since you are dealing with a somewhat static system, there is less basis for a policy shift. Tensions build to greater heights because the factors contributing to them remain constant for longer. Tensions between democracies oscillate more and thus frequent relief of tension averts war. This is parallel to marital relations: couples who have sex regularly tend to get along better with each other, whereas couples who have sex seldomly are constantly crabby.

  2. Anonymous9:21 PM

    I'm afraid I'm a bit of a cynic, but I believe the question of why democracies don't war on other democracies boils down to the acquisition and maintenance of power. Other democracies are generally not a threat to each other, and in fact, are usually part of the same power structure since power is both political and economic. Non-democracies can be a threat to stability and offer increases in power (both political and economic) to a victor.