Democratic peace theory Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Democratic peace theory (also known as the Theory of democratic peace) is a theory in political science which states that democracies almost never go to war with one another. A number of explanations have been put forth by scholars to explain this phenomenoa, and many believe that democracies tend to find alternatives to violent conflict (such as negotiation or arbitration).The Correlates of War Project has done studies to evaluate the historic merit of this theory. In some 2,000 cases of war or other armed conflicts, they could not find a single case where the theory did not hold. Their database started in 1816 and so for example excluded the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States; while neither country had universal suffrage in the modern sense, both regarded themselves as democracies with governments decided by elections.
It should be noted that statistically, this is an association, and association does not establish causality. There is currently no definitive theory as to why the democratic peace theory is true.
Some democratic peace theorists hypothesize that this phenomena is explained by the fact that democratic countries tend to be capitalist states, whose trade relations with one another create interdependence among them. This interdependence, their theory argues, constrains the ability of democratic nations to go to war, due to the increased costs. This can prove detrimental not only to the nations involved, but also to their allies and neutral powers. Other scholars suggest that the citizens of democratic societies are less likely to view the citizens of other democracies as enemies, and since their support for the war is neccessary (due to the democratic system), war is less likely to be waged.
Critics of democratic peace theory usually center their arguments around the definition of the terms "democracy," "war" and "peace." Many point out that democracies have engaged covert conflict resulting in change of regime on the losing side. They point to the 1954 US-backed coup d'etat in Guatemala led by Carlos Castillo Armas as a prime example of such an event.
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