is democracy a guarantee for peace?

• The idea democracies are inherently peaceful is undermined by the evidence. Iraq and Libya show democracies do not go to war for purposes of simple self-defence. This is further confused by which states qualify as ‘democracies’
• ‘Zones of peace’ have emerged (see Europe, N. America and Australasia). History suggests war does not break out between democratic states). This may also be due to the cultural bonds and common moral foundations on which democracies are built.
• Patterns of economic interdependence that result from free trade are more effective in maintaining peace than popular pressures. War is an unattractive prospect because rich states have much to fear from the possibility of defeat.
• Democracies will seek accommodation rather than confrontation because their citizens have no ‘stomach for war’. War then becomes a last resort in self-defence.
• The constitutional arrangement of a state does not alter the drive of state egoism and the security dilemma and therefore the potential for violence. Public opinion sometimes impels democratic governments towards aggressive foreign policy e.g. ‘war on terror’
• Democratic governance is predicated on compromise and conciliation. This will be transferred to foreign policy leading to non-violent conflict resolution
• Global order - the maintenance of peace by states within the international community through upholding of international law.
• As of the end of 2017, 96 out of 167 countries with populations of at least 500,000 (57%) were democracies of some kind, and only 21 (13%) were autocracies
• Broadly speaking, the share of democracies among the world’s governments has been on an upward trend since the mid-1970s, and now sits just shy of its post-World War II record (58% in 2016).
• the share of democracies among the world’s governments has been on an upward trend since the mid-1970s
•  In 2017, 33 countries were considered fully consolidated democracies, with a Polity rating of +10.
• The peak postwar year for consolidated democracies was 2006, when there were 35; since then, two (Belgium and the United States) have slipped from the top tier.
• In 1977, only 35 of the 143 countries rated by Polity (24%) qualified as democracies, while 89 (62%) were classified as autocracies of one stripe or another
•  democracy spread rapidly as the Cold War ended and the Soviet-led bloc – and eventually the Soviet Union itself – crumbled between 1989 and 1991.
• Of the 75 countries rated as autocracies in 1987, only 15 (20%) were still rated that way three decades later
• Countries that, since 1989, were committed to common European values, including liberal democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law, are now implementing an altogether different political model.