Liberalism and the Democratic Peace

1
Liberalism and the Democratic Peace

• PLSC 370
• Lecture 6

2
Liberalism

• Realisms biggest competitor
• Not the same thing as democratic. It is a
  whole different liberal
• Liberalist is NOT a word!!!
• World is hierarchical (instead of anarchical)
• States may still be selfish, but they can do
  things to align their interests

3
The Kantian Tripod

• Emmanuel Kants Perpetual Peace
• Democracies
• Interdependence (trade)
• International institutions

4
The Democratic Peace

• Monadic version
• Democracies are more peaceful (fight less often)
  than autocracies
• Empirically refuted
• Dyadic version
• Democracies dont fight OTHER democracies
• Strong empirical evidence
• or is there

5
Evidence for the DDP

• May depend on definition
• May depend on perceptions
• War is rare democracies are rare
• (This should sound familiar to you) what matters
  is whether there is a strong logical argument for
  co-democracy causing peace

6
Explanations

• Norms
• Politics violence bad
• Democratic legal culture creates habits and
  expectations of peaceful resolution of conflicts
• Is this true? http//www.youtube.com/watch?vOOWtQ
  R13FtY
• Democratic publics disapprove of war as an
  instrument of policy
• Is this true?
• Dyadic but not monadic?

7
Explanations 2

• Institutions constrain leaders
• Politicians want to be reelected
• Voters can control politicians by voting
  retrospectively
• Median voter pays cost of war, but does not
  benefit
• Dyadic but not monadic?
• Institutions Inform
• Difficult to achieve large surprise (free press,
  separation of powers)
• Audience costs mean better signaling of
  intentions
• Schultz
• Institutions select
• Winning coalition size
• Democratic leaders produce public goods
• Leaders try to choose wars they will win
• Democratic leads make a greater effort

8
Implications

• Theory How does the democratic peace pose a
  challenge to neo-realism?
• Policy How has this idea affected US foreign
  policy?