Can a democratic peace be built?

Abstract

If democracies rarely fight each other, what implications does that hold for contemporary foreign policy? To be “democratic” in a manner that will promote peace, democracy must be stable, with guarantees for the respect of minority rights in a world of revived ethnic identities. Outsiders’ efforts to promote democracy can be effective only to a limited degree and under particular circumstances, yet sometimes those efforts—employing a combination of carrots and sticks—can be crucial. Outsiders’ efforts are more likely to be regarded as legitimate, and are more likely to be effective, to the degree they are multilateral, under the auspices of international organizations. Strengthening the norm that democracies should not fight each other will help reduce the actual incidence of such conflicts, and that in turn will further strengthen the norm. Norms governing behavior in an interstate system are, in part, a function of the norms governing behavior within its component states.

Key words:

• democracy
• peace
• nationalism
• intervention
• norms.