Democracy is seen to exert a globalizing force upon the international community; yet its most enthusiastic proponents argue that it must be a localized, grassroots phenomenon to be of any value. Modern democracy appeared originally within the context of a sovereign state system and required state autonomy in order to preserve democratic institutions. The increasing unwillingness to challenge normative claims made in the political arena, especially within disparate cultural contexts, was a disservice perpetuated by the discipline. The long-standing debate in international relations theory between 'realists' and 'idealists' filtered into the democratic transformation debate. The complexity of the debate was compounded insofar, as the objective commonly accepted by most participants in the debate was itself a manifestly normative construct. The current fascination of international relations theorists in the spread of democratic regimes seems to be more intensely fixed upon the relationship between democracy and peace than upon democracy and wealth.