The growing literature on the relationship between democracy and war has focused on two questions-Whether democracies are more pacific than other types of government, and why democracies do not seem to go to war against each other. In the spirit of Lakatosian cumulativeness - looking for explanations with excess empirical content - this commentary supports one explanation of the `why democracies do not fight democracies' question. The model supported is an expected utility formulation by Bueno de Mesquita & Lalman based on the logical relationships between states which are `doves' and `non-doves'. The same explanation for democracy-to-democracy peace provided by the Bueno de Mesquita-Lalman analytics, based on the ability to `separate' states into doves and non-doves, can be used to explain the linkages between integration and the Deutschian concept of `security community'.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce , 1985. `Toward a Scientific Understanding of International Conflict: A Personal View', International Studies Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 2, June, pp. 121-136.
2.
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce , 1989. `The Contribution of Expected-Utility Theory to the Study of International Conflict', pp. 143-169 in Manus I. Midlarsky, ed. Handbook of War Studies. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
3.
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce; Robert W. Jackman & Randolph M. Siverson, eds, 1991. Special Issue: `Democracy and Foreign Policy: Community and Constraint', Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 35, no. 2, June.
4.
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce & David Lalman, 1992. War and Reason. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
5.
Chan, Steve , 1984. `Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...Are the Free Countries More Pacific?'Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 28, no. 4, December, pp. 617-648.
6.
Deutsch, Karl W.et al. , 1957. Political Community and the North Atlantic Area. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
7.
Doyle, Michael W. , 1986. `Liberalism and World Politics', American Political Science Review. vol. 80, no. 4, December, pp. 1151-1169.
8.
Ember, Carol R ,; Melvin Ember & Bruce Russett, 1991. `Peace Between Participatory Polities: A Cross-Cultural Test of the “Democracies rarely fight each other” Hypothesis', Human Relations Area Files Working Paper PO4. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
9.
Fukuyama, Francis , 1989. `The End of History?'The National Interest, no. 16, Summer, pp. 3-18.
10.
Garnham, David , 1986. `War-Proneness, War-Weariness, and Regime Type, 1816-1980', Journal of Peace Research, vol. 23, no. 3, September, pp. 279-289.
11.
Lakatos, Imre , 1978. The Methodology of Scientific Research Programs, vol. 1. London: Cambridge University Press.
12.
Lijphart, Arend , 1981. `Karl W. Deutsch and the New Paradigm in International Relations', pp. 233-251 in Richard L. Merritt & Bruce M. Russett, eds, From National Development to Global Community. London: Allen & Unwin.
13.
Maoz, Zeev & Nasrin Abdolali, 1989. `Regime Types and International Conflict, 1816-1976', Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 33, no. 1, March, pp. 3-35.
14.
Maoz, Zeev & Bruce Russett, 1992. `Alliances, Contiguity, Wealth and Political Stability: Is the Lack of Conflict Among Democracies a Statistical Artifact?'International Interactions, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 245-267.
15.
Morgan, T. Clifton & Sally Howard Campbell, 1991. `Domestic Structure, Decisional Constraints, and War: So Why Kant Democracies Fight?'Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 35, no. 2, June, pp. 187-211.
16.
Morgan, T. Clifton & Valerie L. Schwebach, 1991. `Take Two Democracies and Call Me in the Morning: A Prescription for Peace?' Paper Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, August.
17.
Most, Benjamin A. & Harvey Starr, 1989. Inquiry, Logic and International Politics. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
18.
Puchala, Donald J. , 1981. `Integration Theory and the Study of International Relations', pp. 45-64 in Richard L. Merritt & Bruce M. Russett, eds, From National Development to Global Community. London: Allen & Unwin.
19.
Richardson, Lewis F. , 1960. The Statistics of Deadly Quarrels. Chicago, IL: Quadrangle.
20.
Rummel, Rudolph, J. , 1968. `The Relationship Between National Attributes and Foreign Conflict Behavior', pp. 187-214 in J. David Singer, ed., Quantitative International Politics. New York: Free Press.
21.
Rummel, Rudolph J. , 1983. `Libertarianism and International Voilence', Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 27, no. 1, March, pp. 27-71.
22.
Russett, Bruce , 1963. Community and Contention: Britain and America in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
23.
Russett, Bruce & William Antholis, 1991. `Democracies Rarely Fight Each Other? Evidence from the Peloponnesian War.'Yale University, Department of Political Science.
24.
Russett, Bruce & Harvey Starr, 1992. World Politics: the Menu for Choice, 4th ed.New York: Freeman.
25.
Small, Melvin & J. David Singer, 1976. `The War-Proneness of Democratic Regimes', Jerusalem Journal of International Relations, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 50-69.
26.
Starr, Harvey , 1991. `Democratic Dominoes: Diffusion Approaches to the Spread of Democracy in the International System', Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 35, no. 2, June, pp. 356-381.
27.
Weede, Erich , 1984. `Democracy and War Involvement', Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 28, no. 4, December, pp. 649-664.
28.
Zagare, Frank C. , 1990. `Rationality and Deterrence', World Politics, vol. 42, no. 2, January, pp. 238-260.
