Realist and Cultural Critiques of the Democratic Peace: A Theoretical and Empirical Reassessment

Over the last four years, a number of criticisms have been addressed at the democratic peace proposition. These criticisms challenged both the basic argument that democracies do not fight each other as well as the explanation for this phenomenon. The present study re‐evaluates the democratic peace proposition in light of two types of criticisms: relaist and cultural. Realist criticisms argue that the democratic peace proposition is either a statistical artifact or that the lack of conflict between democracies can be explained by realist factors such as power balances or common interests. Cultural criticisms challenge the “objectivity” of conceptions of democracy, and accuse democratic peace notions as being culturally biased. The examination of these criticisms leads to a number of empirical replications and novel statistical tests of the democratic peace proposition. The overall conclusion is that none of these criticisms damages the basic fact of the democratic peace. The conclusion urges moving on to s...

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