Download Liberalism, Democracy, and Democratic Peace Theory and more Lecture notes International Relations in PDF only on Docsity! Liberalism ● Adam Smith, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Woodrow Wilson ● Views human nature as optimistic; optimistic about progress in international relations ● The state of nature, regardless to the system of governance in the international system, is oriented around desire for peace ● Peace is normal, war is abnormal ● Believe in establishing international institutions and spreading democracy ● Non-state actors are important (e.g. individuals, multinational firms, INGOs, IGOs) ● Emphasizes absolute gains over relative gains ● Believe in the domestic analogy→ what is true in the domestic system can be true in the international system ● Internal characteristics of states are crucial in understanding their foreign policy Liberalism & Anarchy ● Under anarchy, is cooperation possible? How do states increase the likelihood of cooperation? Tit for Tat Strategy ● Robert Axelrod Classical Liberalism: Theory of governments within states ● Focuses on different characteristics of government within states ● Democratic peace theory Institutional Liberalism (Neoliberalism): Theory of good governance between states ● Good governance→ establish more international organizations ● Emphasize international regimes and the role of interdependent trade ● Change the structure of the international system so states can better cooperate Immanuel Kant ● Wrote “Perpetual Peace” ○ Republican constitutions ■ “The civil constitution of every state should be republican” ■ Representative governments with separation of powers, private property, and market-based economies ■ Under representative governments, political leaders are accountable for their decisions ○ Pacific union: Federation of Free States ■ “The Law of Nations Shall be Founded on a Federation of Free States” ■ The federation of free states facilitates cooperation and provides collective defense ○ Cosmopolitan law ■ “The Law of World Citizenship Shall Be Limited to Conditions of Universal Hospitality” ■ Republican states should adhere to cosmopolitan law that always affords hospitality to other foreign nations ■ Free trade; economic interdependence Democracy ● Regular elections ● Competitive political parties ● Near-universal adult suffrage ● Basic political and individual rights ● Polity score→ scale that measures a nation’s degree of democracy ○ Developed by Gurr in 1960 Democratic Peace Theory ● Democratic countries are less likely to go to war against each other ● “Absence of war between democratic states comes as close as anything we have to an empirical law in international relations”- Jack Levy ● Normative Cultural Argument: ○ Common political culture and norms make democracies less likely to go to war with each other ○ Tolerance for different ideas; respect for the freedom; illegitimacy of using force ○ Democratic countries can “externalize” norms and culture from the domestic to the international domain ○ Democratic countries expect other democratic countries to share the same norms and cultures ● Structural Institutional Argument ○ Institutional restraints on executive branches in both countries make them less likely to go to war ○ Congress has “the power of the purse” over the military ○ Press, interest groups, and nongovernmental organizations can freely express their opinions and make an impact on a war decision Democratizing vs Democratic Country ● Democratization increases the likelihood of war ● Democratizing states are not fully equipped with democratic institutions (strong military; weak legislature)
