The Tenets of Democratic Peace Theory

For centuries, people all over the world have sought the idea of everlasting global peace. The basic framework of this idea was given by Immanuel Kant in his 1795 essay “On Perpetual Peace”. In his work, he wrote that peace is not natural to human beings and that is why, governments representing societies and power, through the use of politics have to secure the condition of peace. Immanuel Kant’s essay “On Perpetual Peace” has given the starting point from which “Democratic Peace Theory” originates. With the development of politics and international relations, various forms of “Democratic Peace Theory” have occurred, but there is still one core concept, being the idea that democracy is a cause for peace. According to “Democratic Peace Theory”, democracies are more peace oriented than war, due to the fact that they would lose more if waging war than maintaining economical relations with the specific democracy. Also many scholars use historical data as evidence of how, two democracies wouldn’t fight each other, but in the past there have been few democracies as well as few wars. This essay will mainly focus on the concepts of “Democratic Peace Theory”, how they are relevant to modern times and if in reality peace is maintained only due to the fact that states have democratic regimes.

One of the most appealing sides of democratic peace theory is its simplicity. This is favored both by the public and the academic, because it gives a clear explanation of the statement that democracies don’t fight each other. In the world of politics and international relations having a clear cut idea is valuable and that is why this theory gains a large number of popularity in this field. This may be considered as the first strength of democratic ...

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...levance of its supra- and intra-state sides. The normative implications can have two sided effects, either maintaining peace or justifying war.

Works Cited

Clinton, Bill “1994 State Of The Union Address,” The Washington Post via http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/states/docs/sou94.htm Immanuel Kant, 1795, Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant1.htm Layne, Christopher 1994 “Kant or Cant: The Myth of the Democratic Peace,” International Security, Vol. 19, No. 2, Autumn

Levy, Jack S. 1989 “Domestic Politics and War,” in Robert I. Rotberg and Theodore K. Rabb, eds., The Origin and Prevention of Major Wars, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

President and Prime Minister Blair Discussed Iraq, Middle East" via http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041112-5.html