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Democracies and Peace: The Self-organizing Foundation for the Democratic Peace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

Democracies do not fight one another. This is because they are self-organizing systems and therefore fundamentally distinct from other states. As systems, liberal democracies have more in common with science and the market than they do with undemocratic states. By contrast, undemocratic states are best conceived as instrumental organizations pursuing relatively well defined goals. Liberal democracies do not normally pursue particular goals, are rarely comprehensible as rational actors, have unusually open boundaries, are self-transforming, and handle greater complexity than instrumental organizations. These characteristics provide the foundation for their mutually pacific relationships. The U.S. president's partial insulation from these characteristics explains why the United States has sometimes undermined small quasi-democratic states. This analysis sheds light on how norms and institutions help maintain the democratic peace.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1995

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References

I would like to thank in particular the late Clifford Ketzel, who pointed out to me many years ago the mutually pacific relationships of democratic governments. In addition I thank the referees who have read and commented on this paper.

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