An Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace Author(s): Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, James D. Morrow, Randolph M. Siverson and Alastair Smith Source: The American Political Science Review, Vol. 93, No. 4 (Dec., 1999), pp. 791-807 Published by: American Political Science Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2586113 Accessed: 08-11-2018 22:43 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
Terms and Conditions of Use
American Political Science Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Political Science Review
This content downloaded from 169.228.91.29 on Thu, 08 Nov 2018 22:43:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
American Political Science Review Vol. 93, No. 4 December 1999
An Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace BRUCE BUENO DE MESQUITA Hoover Institution JAMES D. MORROW Hoover Institution RANDOLPH M. SIVERSON University of California, Davis ALASTAIR SMITH Yale University
Wo He examine formally the link between domestic political institutions and policy choices in the context of eight empirical regularities that constitute the democratic peace. We demonstrate that democratic leaders, when faced with war, are more inclined to shift extra resources into the war
effort than are autocrats. This follows because the survival of political leaders with larger winning coalitions hinges on successful policy. The extra effort made by democrats provides a military advantage over autocrats. This makes democrats unattractive targets, since their institutional constraints cause them to mobilize resources for the war effort. In addition to trying harder, democrats are more selective in their choice of targets. Because defeat is more likely to lead to domestic replacement for democrats than for autocrats, democrats only initiate wars they expect to win. These two factors lead to the interaction between polities that is often referred to as the democratic peace.
T he study of international relations has produced few widely accepted generalizations. One of these, sometimes even asserted to be an empir-
ical law (Levy 1988), is that democracies do not fight wars with one another. The empirical evidence for this claim is quite strong (Bremer 1992; Maoz and Abdolali 1989; Oneal and Russett 1997; Ray 1995). Recent efforts to cast this empirical observation in doubt notwithstanding (Farber and Gowa 1995; Layne 1994; Schwartz and Skinner 1997; Spiro 1994), extensive, rigorous statistical tests all show a significant propen- sity for democracies to be nearly immune from wars with one another (Maoz 1998; Russett 1995). Associ- ated with this so-called democratic peace are seven additional empirical regularities related to war prone- ness and democracy, all based on empirical observa- tions. (1) Democracies are not at all immune from fighting wars with nondemocracies (Maoz and Abdolali 1989).1 (2) Democracies tend to win a disproportionate share of the wars they fight (Lake 1992; Reiter and Stam 1998b). (3) When disputes do emerge, demo- cratic dyads choose more peaceful processes of dispute settlement than do other pairings of states (Brecher and Wilkenfeld 1997; Dixon 1994; Mousseau 1998; Raymond 1994). (4) Democracies are more likely to initiate wars against autocracies than are autocracies against democracies (Bennett and Stam 1998). (5) In
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is Senior Fellow and James D. Morrow is Senior Research Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305-6010, Randolph Siverson is Professor of Political Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, and Alastair Smith is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8301.
The research reported here was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant SBR-9409225. We are greatly indebted to Raymond E. Wolfinger for his facilitation of this research and to David Austen-Smith, Fiona McGillivray, Will Moore, Bruce Russett, Kiron Skinner, Allan Stam, and several anonymous referees for their helpful comments. 1 Some studies suggest that democracies are, on the whole, more pacific than autocracies (Benoit 1996; Ray 1995). Yet, such general war avoidance cannot account for their relative propensity to fight with different regime types.
wars they initiate, democracies pay fewer costs in terms of human life and fight shorter wars than nondemo- cratic states (Bennett and Stam 1996; Siverson 1995). (6) Transitional democracies appear more likely to fight than stable regimes (Mansfield and Snyder 1995; Ward and Gleditsch 1998). (7) Larger democracies seem more constrained to avoid war than do smaller democracies (Morgan and Campbell 1991).
Although these observations about democracy and war are part of an important pattern, they lack a coherent explanation. Several possibilities have been put forward, but none has gained broad acceptance. We propose a game-theoretic model that may help bring closure to the debate on the causal mechanism governing the eight regularities mentioned above. The model will be shown to account for the empirical record regarding the first six of the eight patterns. The regularities concerning transitional democracies (Mansfield and Snyder 1995; Ward and Gleditsch 1998) and the constraints on great power democracies (Morgan and Campbell 1991) are stated in monadic form. These regularities cannot be evaluated in terms of a model of strategic interaction without additional information. Specifically, without data on the demo- cratic state’s adversary, we cannot evaluate the relevant institutional and resource relationships. We will pro- vide an interpretation of our model that is consistent with both monadic results, but we cannot undertake a more rigorous assessment.
Get Professional Assignment Help Cheaply
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason may is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Our essay writers are graduates with diplomas, bachelor’s, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college diploma. When assigning your order, we match the paper subject with the area of specialization of the writer.
Why Choose Our Academic Writing Service?
Plagiarism free papers
Timely delivery
Any deadline
Skilled, Experienced Native English Writers
Subject-relevant academic writer
Adherence to paper instructions
Ability to tackle bulk assignments
Reasonable prices
24/7 Customer Support
Get superb grades consistently
How It Works
1. Place an order
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
2. Pay for the order
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
3. Track the progress
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
4. Download the paper
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.
Get Professional Assignment Help Cheaply
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason may is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Our essay writers are graduates with diplomas, bachelor’s, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college diploma. When assigning your order, we match the paper subject with the area of specialization of the writer.
Why Choose Our Academic Writing Service?
Plagiarism free papers
Timely delivery
Any deadline
Skilled, Experienced Native English Writers
Subject-relevant academic writer
Adherence to paper instructions
Ability to tackle bulk assignments
Reasonable prices
24/7 Customer Support
Get superb grades consistently
How It Works
1. Place an order
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
2. Pay for the order
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
3. Track the progress
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
4. Download the paper
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.
PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH Essay fount TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT
The post Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace appeared first on Essay fount.
What Students Are Saying About Us
.......... Customer ID: 12*** | Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Honestly, I was afraid to send my paper to you, but you proved you are a trustworthy service. My essay was done in less than a day, and I received a brilliant piece. I didn’t even believe it was my essay at first 🙂 Great job, thank you!"
.......... Customer ID: 11***| Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"This company is the best there is. They saved me so many times, I cannot even keep count. Now I recommend it to all my friends, and none of them have complained about it. The writers here are excellent."
"Order a custom Paper on Similar Assignment at essayfount.com! No Plagiarism! Enjoy 20% Discount!"
