Since WEB keeps asking for it, here is a thread on Democratic Peace Theory. Basically it's the argument that democracies don't go to war with each other, and are generally less war-prone, because of:
Democratic representation
A commitment to human rights
Transnational dependance

Do you think this is true? Can you think of any times when democracies have gone to war with each other? I can definately think of many times when democracies have gone to war with non-democratic nations, America has I'm sure fought more wars than any other state in the 20th century.

I also notice that the argument hinges on a commitment to human rights, but do democracies have to have this? I think what it really means is Liberal Democracies. Do any non-liberal democracies currently exist? Does democracy always mean Liberal Democracy?

__________________
... I am surprised at your insolence in writing to me at all. You know, as I know, that I bought this constituency... may God's curse light upon you and may it make your women as open and as free to the excise officers as your wives and daughters have always been to me while I have represented your scoundrel corporation.
I have the honour to be... your obliged humble servant, Anthony Henley
- MPs reply to constituent, mid 1700s

I think that before one answers these probing questiions, one must define democracy. Beyond me--are we talking about countries that have voting or that have reps or what? Is it necessarily between defined countries with defined borders or people?

OZ sorry to throw a wrench, but I think a definition would need to be given. Thoughts?

I mean one could say that the Paris Commune was a real democracy at work, but not a country. Sorry to be oicky but just want to know which way to answer.

__________________
STUPIDITY Is The Deliberate Cultivation Of Ignorance

TRUTH exist, only a falsehood has to be invented.

Please Visit My Blog http://studiesandobservations.blogspot.com/

Sorry, had to break up a dog fight. I think democracies will always go to war with "undemocratic", a term I dislike, because to go to war with a demcracy would show the world that it is NOT a democracy, and that the system may not be all it is cracked uop tobe.

__________________
STUPIDITY Is The Deliberate Cultivation Of Ignorance

TRUTH exist, only a falsehood has to be invented.

Please Visit My Blog http://studiesandobservations.blogspot.com/

Well indeed, democracy is hard to define. People say "no democracy has ever gone to war with another democracy" but Hitler gained his power in an originally democratic system, which then voted him absolute power. I think what they mean is modern Liberal Democracies, but if these countries all follow the same ideology, why would they go to war? The communist countries didn't fight each other either.

__________________
... I am surprised at your insolence in writing to me at all. You know, as I know, that I bought this constituency... may God's curse light upon you and may it make your women as open and as free to the excise officers as your wives and daughters have always been to me while I have represented your scoundrel corporation.
I have the honour to be... your obliged humble servant, Anthony Henley
- MPs reply to constituent, mid 1700s

Democracies are very, very unlikely to go to war with one another. There is no such thing as an ironclad law when it comes to history and politics. There are always exceptions. It's what we learn about these exceptions that enlightens.

The main reason democracies don't go to war with each other is that democracies are used to deliberation and negotiation internally, and thus tend to prefer diplomacy to war when they believe that the other side is negotiating in good faith. Since democracies tend to be more transparent, the interests and wants of the other side tend to be pretty easy to read.

But with dictatorships, these guys are used to using force internally. Diplomacy is not their forte, except as it relates to plotting and backscratching. Since dictatorships tend to have a secrecy fetish, one doesn't really have any idea if they can be negotiated with. Also, dictators can make weird personal demands that surprise democracies, because they just aren't expecting such weird things. Such as Kim's demand that we must let him counterfeit dollars before we can talk about his nuke program. What democratic leader would say such a bizarre thing?

One major cause of war is simple racial or religious hatred. Since democracies tend to be open societies, over time racial and religious bigotry tend to decline(which is why some new democracies can sometimes get into wars with other democracies). Dictatorships tend to fan the flames of hatred to focus the people on outside enemies.

__________________
chicken butt

I think the Democratic Peace Theory can better be described as a Rule of Thumb. A Rule of Thumb, in case you don't know, is a way to just estimate a result and be right the majority of the time.

__________________
chicken butt

I am not aware of ANY true existing democracies, but I do agree that ideally democracies would not go to war with each other. In the same breath I can also say that socialism is the ideal form of government--which tells you I'm either rather stupid or I realize that there is no such thing as an "ideal" situation. Democracies are just as prone to war as dictatorships, because in almost ever case there will be a single person that leads the group. Humans cannot escape the need for a single, strong voice to tell them what to do.

Just look at the first democracy in Greece. Periclese was the first dictator in the first absolute democracy on Earth, and he led his people into a violent, destructive war with Sparta that nearly destroyed Athens. A government cannot correct the inherent flaws of its people, so war will always be inevitable.

__________________
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
-Descartes

We have arranged for ourselves a world in which we can live - by positing bodies, lines, planes, causes and effects, motion and rest, form and content; without these articles of faith nobody could now endure life. But that does not prove them. Life is no argument. The conditions of life might include error.
-Nietzsche

When a democracy is dealing with a dictatorship, then the peopel of the democracy are thinking to themselves this is a rogue nation, they are hellbent on war and the leader is a cruel and demented despot. We cannot backdown to their threats, we have to fight.
__________________


Which is caused by the fact that most dictatorships are secretive and it's not always easy to tell what their intentions are. So we assume the worst. Or sometimes we assume the best and get a rude shock.

__________________
chicken butt

Sounds like a sketch of current US administration.

__________________
These are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. ~Groucho Marx~

I'm a firm believer in the democratic peace theory.

I think that nondemocratic regimes have a natural tendency to become belligerent, while democratic regimes have a natural tendency towards peace.