Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:49:18.779Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Liberalism and World Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1986

Michael W. Doyle
Michael W. Doyle*
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Building on a growing literature in international political science, I reexamine the traditional liberal claim that governments founded on a respect for individual liberty exercise “restraint” and “peaceful intentions” in their foreign policy. I look at three distinct theoretical traditions of liberalism, attributable to three theorists: Schumpeter, a democratic capitalist whose explanation of liberal pacifism we often invoke; Machiavelli, a classical republican whose glory is an imperialism we often practice; and Kant, a liberal republican whose theory of internationalism best accounts for what we are. Despite the contradictions of liberal pacifism and liberal imperialism, I find, with Kant and other democratic republicans, that liberalism does leave a coherent legacy on foreign affairs. Liberal states are different. They are indeed peaceful. They are also prone to make war. Liberal states have created a separate peace, as Kant argued they would, and have also discovered liberal reasons for aggression, as he feared they might. I conclude by arguing that the differences among liberal pacifism, liberal imperialism, and Kant's internationalism are not arbitrary. They are rooted in differing conceptions of the citizen and the state.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 1151 - 1169
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreski, Stanislav. 1980. On the Peaceful Disposition of Military Dictatorships. Journal of Strategic Studies, 3:3–10.10.1080/01402398008437052CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, A. C. 1931. Kant's Philosophy of Peace and War. The Journal of Philosophy, 28:197–204.10.2307/2015602CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aron, Raymond. 1966. Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations. Howard, Richard and Fox, Annette Baker, trans. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Aron, Raymond. 1974. The Imperial Republic. Jellinek, Frank, trans. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Babst, Dean V. 1972. A Force for Peace. Industrial Research. 14 (April): 55–58.Google Scholar
Banks, Arthur, and Overstreet, William, eds. 1983. A Political Handbook of the World; 1982–1983. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Barnet, Richard. 1968. Intervention and Revolution. Cleveland: World Publishing Co. Google Scholar
Brzezinski, Zbigniew, and Huntington, Samuel. 1963. Political Power: USA/USSR. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Carnesale, Albert, Doty, Paul, Hoffmann, Stanley, Huntington, Samuel, Nye, Joseph, and Sagan, Scott. 1983. Living With Nuclear Weapons. New York. Bantam.Google Scholar
Chan, Steve. 1984. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall …: Are Freer Countries More Pacific? Journal of Conflict Resolution, 28:617–48.10.1177/0022002784028004003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemens, Walter C. 1982. The Superpowers and the Third World. In Kegley, Charles and McGowan, Pat, eds., Foreign Policy; USA/USSR. Beverly Hills: Sage. pp. 111–35Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael W. 1983a. Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs: Part 1. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 12:205–35.Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael W. 1983b. Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs: Part 2. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 12:323–53.Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael W. 1986. Empires. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
The Europa Yearbook for 1985. 1985. 2 vols. London. Europa Publications.Google Scholar
Friedrich, Karl. 1948. Inevitable Peace. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/harvard.9780674332577CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallie, W. B. 1978. Philosophers of Peace and War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511558450CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galston, William. 1975. Kant and the Problem of History. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Gastil, Raymond. 1985. The Comparative Survey of Freedom 1985. Freedom at Issue, 82:3–16.Google Scholar
Haas, Michael. 1974. International Conflict. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Hassner, Pierre. 1972. Immanuel Kant. In Strauss, Leo and Cropsey, Joseph, eds., History of Political Philosophy. Chicago: Rand McNally. pp. 554–93.Google Scholar
Hermens, Ferdinand A. 1944. The Tyrants' War and the People's Peace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hinsley, F. H. 1967. Power and the Pursuit of Peace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Stanley. 1965. Rousseau on War and Peace. In Hoffmann, Stanley, ed. The State of War. New York: Praeger. pp. 45–87.Google Scholar
Holmes, Stephen. 1979. Aristippus in and out of Athens. American Political Science Review, 73:113–28.10.2307/1954734CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huliung, Mark. 1983. Citizen Machiavelli. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1963. Of the Balance of Power. Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1970. Kant's Political Writings. Reiss, Hans, ed. Nisbet, H. B., trans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, George A. 1969. Idealism, Politics, and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert, and Nye, Joseph. 1977. Power and Interdependence. Boston: Little Brown.Google Scholar
Langer, William L., ed. 1968. The Encylopedia of World History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolo. 1950. The Prince and the Discourses. Lerner, Max, ed. Ricci, Luigi and Detmold, Christian, trans. New York: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Mansfield, Harvey C. 1970. Machiavelli's New Regime. Italian Quarterly, 13:63–95.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, Charles de. 1949 Spirit of the Laws. New York: Hafner. (Originally published in 1748.)Google Scholar
Murphy, Jeffrie. 1970. Kant: The Philosophy of Right. New York: St. Martins.10.1007/978-1-349-15384-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neustadt, Richard. 1970. Alliance Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Payne, James L. n.d. Marxism and Militarism. Polity. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Pocock, J. G. A. 1975. The Machiavellian Moment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl. 1944. The Great Transformation. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Posen, Barry, and VanEvera, Stephen. 1980. Over- arming and Underwhelming. Foreign Policy, 40:99–118.10.2307/1148343CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posen, Barry, and VanEvera, Stephen. 1983. Reagan Administration Defense Policy. In Oye, Kenneth, Lieber, Robert, and Rothchild, Donald, eds., Eagle Defiant. Boston: Little Brown, pp. 67–104.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham. 1982. Contemporary Democracies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674042353CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. June 9, 1982. Address to Parliament. New York Times.Google Scholar
Riley, Patrick. 1983. Kant's Political Philosophy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Rummel, Rudolph J. 1979. Understanding Conflict and War, 5 vols. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Rummel, Rudolph J. 1983. Libertarianism and International Violence. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 27:27–71.10.1177/0022002783027001002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russett, Bruce. 1985. The Mysterious Case of Vanishing Hegemony. International Organization, 39:207–31.10.1017/S0020818300026953CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph. 1950. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper Torchbooks.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph. 1955. The Sociology of Imperialism. In Imperialism and Social Classes. Cleveland: World Publishing Co. (Essay originally published in 1919.)Google Scholar
Schwarz, Wolfgang. 1962. Kant's Philosophy of Law and International Peace. Philosophy and Phenomenonological Research, 23:71–80.10.2307/2104990CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shell, Susan. 1980. The Rights of Reason. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.10.3138/9781487583545CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shklar, Judith. 1984. Ordinary Vices. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1981. Machiavelli. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Small, Melvin, and Singer, J. David. 1976. The War-Proneness of Democratic Regimes. The Jerusalem Journal of International Relations, 1(4):50–69.Google Scholar
Small, Melvin, and Singer, J. David. 1982. Resort to Arms. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Streit, Clarence. 1938. Union Now: A Proposal for a Federal Union of the Leading Democracies. New York: Harpers.Google Scholar
Thucydides, . 1954. The Peloponnesian War. Warner, Rex, ed. and trans. Baltimore: Penguin.Google Scholar
U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 1980. A Yearbook of the Commonwealth 1980. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress. Senate. Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. 1975. Covert Action in Chile, 1963–74. 94th Cong., 1st sess., Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of State. 1981. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth. 1962. Kant, Liberalism, and War. American Political Science Review, 56:331–40.10.2307/1952369CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth. 1964. The Stability of a Bipolar World. Daedalus, 93:881–909.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1983. Spheres of Justice. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Weede, Erich. 1984. Democracy and War Involvement. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 28:649–64.10.1177/0022002784028004004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkenfeld, Jonathan. 1968. Domestic and Foreign Conflict Behavior of Nations. Journal of Peace Research, 5:56–69.10.1177/002234336800500104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Howard. 1983. Kant's Political Philosophy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wright, Quincy. 1942. A Study of History. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Yovel, Yirmiahu. 1980. Kant and the Philosophy of History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.