Democratic Peace Theory

The Democratic Peace (hereafter DP), or the absence of wars between democracies, is one of the more significant findings to have emerged within International Relations scholarship in recent decades. It has consequently attracted significant and critical attention of a large body of scholars and policy-makers alike. In this course we will examine the history of the idea, its main empirical claims, the explanations for it, the auxiliary claims and the criticisms of the research. While the methodological slant will be on quantitative research, we will also examine issues of research design as well as historical case studies as appropriate. Issue areas that will be covered includes: the Kantian origins of the DP, the dyadic level of analysis, the normative, institutional, and informational explanations of the DP (three sessions), the capitalist peace, the DP as a research program, auxiliary relationships of DP (democracy in war, in covert action and in human rights), criticisms of the DP as well as the challenge of democratization.

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