Democracies and Peace

The Self-organizing Foundation for the Democratic Peace

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6399341
AutoresGus Dizerega (autor correspondente)
Ano1995
Volume57
Fascículo2
Páginas279-308
Data de publicação1995-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670500026905
OpenAlexW1988341726
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas37

Democracies do not fight one another. This is because they are self-organizing systems and therefore fundamentally distinct from other states. As systems, liberal democracies have more in common with science and the market than they do with undemocratic states. By contrast, undemocratic states are best conceived as instrumental organizations pursuing relatively well defined goals. Liberal democracies do not normally pursue particular goals, are rarely comprehensible as rational actors, have unusually open boundaries, are self-transforming, and handle greater complexity than instrumental organizations. These characteristics provide the foundation for their mutually pacific relationships. The U.S. president's partial insulation from these characteristics explains why the United States has sometimes undermined small quasi-democratic states. This analysis sheds light on how norms and institutions help maintain the democratic peace

Democracy · Foundation (evidence · Law and economics · Liberal democracy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Public Administration · Religion and Society Interactions