Democratic Peace Theory

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In this essay, I will show that democratic peace theory which state that liberal democracies do not go to war against each another provide reasonable arguments in promoting democracy to nondemocratic states. Democratic proponents emphasize that the shared norm between liberal states is one of the factor that ensure peace among them. Besides that, citizens play a major role in declaring war by liberal democracies which result in a lower frequency of wars between the nations. Next, declaring war is complex and democratic leaders will not opt for it unless inevitable. Firstly, democratic peace is able to promote greater stability in the world as a result of the shared norms between liberal democracies. They have a common code of honor which is clearly stated in the countries’ constitution that requires them to solve dispute in a peaceful manners. In case of clashes in interest among them, they will seek for a solution in round table manners which involved peaceful talks and negotiations. For example, the long shimmering dispute between America and Canada on the sovereignty over the Northwest Passage did not startle arm race between those two powers. This was further elaborated by Maoz and Russett (1993) that political disputes among democratic countries are settled through compromises instead of the destruction of the opposite side. Proponents of liberalism do agree that clashes in interests among liberal democracies are common but their solutions taken will not far off from the set of boundaries that are set by each country in dealing with foreign matters. Dixon (1994) termed such behavior as “bounded competition” in which countries vowed to regulate rivalry in clashes of interest in a peaceful and nonviolent step. It is worth noticing that there are non-liberal countries like Saudi Arabia may share a diplomatic relationship with liberal democracies like America.
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