In:
Journal of Peace Research, SAGE Publications, Vol. 33, No. 1 ( 1996-02), p. 11-28
Abstract:
The classical liberals believed that democracy and free trade would reduce the incidence of war. Here we conduct new tests of the `democratic peace', incorporating into the analyses of Maoz & Russett (1993) a measure of economic interdependence based on the economic importance of bilateral trade. This allows us to conduct a simultaneous evaluation of the effects of regime type and interdependence on the likelihood that a pair of states will become involved in a militarized interstate dispute. We control in all our analyses for a number of potentially confounding influences: growth rates in per capita income, alliances, geographic contiguity, and relative power. Our logistic regression analyses of politically relevant dyads (1950-85) indicate that the benefits of the liberals' economic program have not been sufficiently appreciated. Trade is a powerful influence for peace, especially among the war-prone, contiguous pairs of states. Moreover, Kant (1991 [1795]) was right: International conflict is less likely when external economic relations are important, executives are constrained, and societies are governed by non-violent norms of conflict resolution.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0022-3433
,
1460-3578
DOI:
10.1177/0022343396033001002
Language:
English
Publisher:
SAGE Publications
Publication Date:
1996
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1490712-4
SSG:
3,6
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