Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-2jptb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-17T14:40:04.858Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Democracy and peace: putting the cart before the horse?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

William R. Thompson
Get access

Extract

To explain the strong finding that democracies rarely fight other democracies, analysts typically focus on some attribute of regime type. This linkage may be spurious, at least in part. The emergence and persistence of the first wave of liberal republics and democracies were greatly facilitated by the prior resolution of regional primacy questions. Because early democracies did not engage fully in competitions for regional primacy and territorial expansion, they were less likely to attack other states, democracies or otherwise, in their home regions. Nonexpansionist foreign policies also discouraged the domestic concentration of economic and political power, which in turn facilitated democratization processes. Four historical cases illustrate how regional primacy issues preceded the development of democracy and either undermined or facilitated democratization processes in major powers that have been especially important to the annals of war participation. Further research on whether peace antecedes democracy or the other way around appears warranted.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , Winter 1996 , pp. 141 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1996

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

Anderson, Perry. 1974. Lineages of the absolutist state. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Arneson, Ben A. 1949. The democratic monarchs of Scandinavia. Toronto: D. Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Bailey, Thomas A. 1958. A diplomatic history of the American people. 7th ed.New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Barnhart, Michael A. 1987. Japan prepares for total war: The search for economic security, 1919–1941. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Barton, H. Arnold. 1986. Scandinavia in the revolutionary era, 1760–1815. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Berger, Gordon M. 1977. Parties out of power in Japan, 1931–1941. Princeton. N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Berger, Gordon M.. 1988. Politics and mobilization in Japan, 1931–1945. In The Cambridge history of Japan: The twentieth century. vol. 6. Edited by Duus, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Best, Geoffrey. 1982. War and society in revolutionary Europe, 1770–1870. Bungay, U.K.: Fontana.Google Scholar
Black, Jeremy. 1994. British foreign policy in an age of revolutions, 1783–1793. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blanning, T. C. W. 1986. The origins of the French revolutionary wars. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Bosher, J. F. 1988. The French revolution. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Bourne, Kenneth. 1967. Britain and the balance of power in North America, 1815–1908. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brauer, K. J. 1984. 1821–1860: Economies of the diplomacy of American expansionism. In Economics and world power: An assessment of American diplomacy since 1789, edited by Becker, William H. and Wells, Samuel F. Jr. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Burt, A. L. 1961. The United States, Great Britain, and British North America. New York: Russell and Russell.Google Scholar
Campbell, Charles C. 1974. From revolution to reapprochement: The United States and Great Britain, 1783–1900. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, Muriel E. 1988. Pax Britannica? British foreign policy, 1789–1914. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Choucri, Nazli, with North, Robert. 1972. In search of peace systems: Scandinavia and the Netherlands, 1870–1970. In Peace, war, and numbers, edited by Russett, Bruce. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Choucri, Nazli, North, Robert, and Yamakage, Susumu. 1992. The challenge of Japan before World War II and after. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Christie, Ian R. 1982. War and revolutions: Britain, 1760–1815. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Crowley, James B. 1966. Japan's quest for autonomy: National security and foreign policy, 1930–1938. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Karl W., Burrell, Sidney A., Kann, Robert A., Lee, Maurice Jr, Lichteman, Martin, Lindgren, Raymond E., Loewenheim, Francis L., and Van Wagenen, Richard W.. 1957. Political community and the North Atlantic area. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dovring, Folke. 1978. Scandinavia. In Crises of political development in Europe and the United States, edited by Grew, Raymond. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Downing, Brian M. 1992. The military revolution and political change: Origins of democracy and autocracy in early modern Europe. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael W. 1986. Liberalism and world politics. American Political Science Review 80:1151–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, William. 1989. The Oxford history of the French Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Dupuy, R. Ernest, and Dupuy, Trevor N.. 1977. The encyclopedia of military history. Rev. ed.New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Duus, Peter. 1968. Party rivalry and political change in Taisho Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duus, Peter. 1976. The rise of modern Japan. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Field, James A. 1984. 1789–1820: All oeconomists, all diplomats. In Economics and world power: An assessment of American diplomacy since 1789, edited by Becker, William H. and Wells, Samuel F. JrNew York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Finer, Samuel E. 1975. State and nation building in Europe: The role of the military. In The formation of national states in Western Europe, edited by Tilly, Charles. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzmaurice, John. 1992. The Baltic: A regional future? New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Goldstone, Jack A. 1991. Revolution and rebellion in the early modern world. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gurr, Ted R. 1988. War, revolution and the growth of the coercive state. Comparative Political Studies 21:45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hata, Ikuhiko. 1988. Continental expansion, 1905–1941. In Cambridge history of Japan: The twentieth century. Vol. 6. Edited by Duus, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hintze, Otto. 1975. The historical essays of Otto Hintze. edited by Gilbert, Felix. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Horsman, Reginald. 1962. The causes of the War of 1812. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 264.Google Scholar
Hovde, Brynijolf J. 1943. The Scandinavian countries, 1720–1865: The rise of the middle classes. 2 vols. Boston: Chapman and Grimes.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1991. The third wave: Democratization in the late twentieth century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Iriye, Akira. 1970. The failure of economic expansion: 1918–1931. In Essays on Taisho democracy, edited by Silberman, Bernard and Harootunian, Harry D.. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, Howard. 1992. Union in peril: The crisis over British intervention in the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Jones, J. R. 1980. Britain and the world, 1649–1815. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Kato, Shuichi. 1970. Taisho democracy as the pre-stage for Japanese militarism. In On Taisho democracy, edited by Silberman, Bernard S. and Harootunian, Harry D.. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Levy, Jack S. 1988. Domestic politics and war. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 18:653–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lisk, Jill. 1967. The struggle for supremacy in the Baltic, 1600–1725. New York: Funk and Wagnalls.Google Scholar
Mann, Michael. 1993. The sources of social power. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitani, Taichiro. 1988. The establishment of party cabinets, 1898–1932. In The Cambridge history of Japan: The twentieth century. Vol. 6. Edited by Duus, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Modelski, George. 1990. Explaining democratization. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, September, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Morgan, T. Clifton, and Howard, Sally. 1991. Domestic structure, decisional constraints and war behavior: So why Kant democracies fight? Journal of Conflict Resolution 35:187–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Barrington. 1966. The social origins of dictatorship and democracy. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Peattie, Mark R. The Japanese colonial empire, 1895–1945. In The Cambridge history of Japan: The twentieth century. Vol. 6. Edited by Duus, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Porter, Bruce D. 1994. War and the rise of the state. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham. 1973. Incremental democratization: The British reform act of 1832. In Crisis, choice, and change: Historical studies of political development, edited by Almond, Gabriel A., Flanagan, Scott C., and Mundt, Robert J.. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Price, Roger. 1993. A concise history of France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rasler, Karen, and Thompson, William R.. 1989. War and state making: The shaping of the global powers. Boston: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Rasler, Karen, and Thompson, William R.. 1994. The great powers and global struggle, 1490–1992. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Reischauer, Edwin O. 1964. Japan: Past and present. 3d rev. ed.New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Reuschmeyer, Dietrich, Stephens, Evelyne H., and Stephens, John D.. 1992. Capitalist development and democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Russett, Bruce. 1990. Controlling the sword: The democratic governance of national security. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russett, Bruce. 1993. Grasping the democratic peace: Principles for a post–cold war world. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rustow, Dankwart. 1970. Transitions to democracy: Toward a dynamic model. Comparative Politics 2:337–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuels, Richard J. 1994. Rich nation, strong army: National security and technological transformation of Japan. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Scalapino, Robert A. 1962. Democracy and the party movement in prewar Japan: The failure of the first attempt. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Schama, Simon. 1989. Citizens: A chronicle of the French revolution. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Schweller, Randall. 1992. Domestic structure and preventative war: Are democracies more pacific? World Politics 44:235–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silberman, Bernard S. 1970. Taisho Japan and the crisis of secularism. In Japan in crisis: Essays on Taisho democracy, edited by Silberman, Bernard S. and Harootunian, Harry D.. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 437–53.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and social revolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda, and Kestnbaum, Meyer. 1990. Mars unshackled: The French revolution in world-historical perspective. In The French revolution and the birth of modernity, edited by Feher, Ference. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Small, Melvin, 1962. Was war necessary? National security and U.S. entry into war. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Small, Melvin. 1980. Was war necessary? National security and U.S. entry into war. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Stone, Bailey. 1994. The genesis of the French revolution: A global historical interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, William R., and Zuk, Gary. 1986. World power and the strategic trap of territorial commitments. International Studies Quarterly 30:249–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles, E., 1975. Reflections on the history of European state-making. In The formation of national states in Western Europe, edited by Tilly, Charles. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 3–83.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles, E., . 1990. Coercion, capital, and European states, AD 990–1990. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles, E., . 1993. European revolutions, 1492–1992. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Willmott, H. P. 1982. Empires in the balance: Japanese and allied Pacific strategies to April 1942. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press.Google Scholar
Wright, J. Leitch Jr 1975. Britain and the American frontier, 1783–1815. Athens: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Quincy. 1965. A study of war. 1942. Reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar