No sympathy for the devil

Emotions and the social construction of the democratic peace

Bibliographic Data

ID8911124
AuthorsSimon Koschut (0000-0002-7932-1928, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume53
Issue3
Pages320-338
Publication date2017-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCooperation and Conflict (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-8367 • E-ISSN: 1460-3691
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0010836717737570
OpenAlexW2766636039
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited54

Constructivists claim that the democratic peace is socially constructed via mutual recognition between liberal subjects. Mutual recognition is rooted in shared moral attitudes and cognitive perceptions, thereby creating liberal intersubjectivity. What is largely missing from these accounts is the fact that shared meanings and identities are not solely rooted in cognitive perceptions and moral attitudes but significantly depend upon shared emotions that underpin and reproduce intersubjectivity. Building on interdisciplinary insights from social constructivist emotion theories, it is argued here that collectively shared emotions provide a way by which liberal subjects choose particular meaning frames and interpretations, which help align and sustain mutual attitudes and perceptions in constructing categories of ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Accordingly, the theoretical question concerning how liberal democracies recognize each other as friends can be more fully answered by the high degree of emotional convergence among them. Moreover, I suggest that it is precisely this emotional convergence that underpins the way liberal selves construct non-liberal others as their enemies

Construct (python library · Constructivism (international relations · Convergence (economics · Democracy · Epistemology · International relations · Intersubjectivity · Liberal democracy · Liberalism · Meaning (existential · Perception · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Sympathy · Gender, Security, and Conflict · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology · Social Psychology

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