Late in the 18th century, the world was in what had become a familiar state; that of warfare. France was in the middle of its Revolution and was, at the same time, in conflict with Prussia, Austria, Spain, Holland, and Britain.
A decade earlier, the American War of Independence had thrown off the yoke of a distant monarch to establish its republic and begin its experiment with democracy.
Immanuel Kant’s Hopes for Peace
In 1796, Immanuel Kant published his “Project for Perpetual Peace.” He had lived through his share of war and had noted that most of them had been started by unelected monarchs or religious leaders.
In the “Project for Perpetual Peace” he wrote: “The republican constitution…offers the hope for the desired result i.e. perpetual peace…because when the consent of the citizens is required in order to decide whether there should be war or not, nothing is more natural than that those who would have to decree for themselves all deprivations of war, will think long before they will begin such an evil game.”
In more modern parlance: People are unlikely to urge a government they have elected into going to war knowing that they themselves are most likely to be the ones who will carry the burden of the conflict. Also, an elected government that declares war without the consent of the people will likely face defeat the next time a vote comes around.
That is the core of Kant’s idea.
Liberal Democracies Don’t Fight Each Other
The case has been made many times that genuine democracies have never gone to war with each other. One of the most forceful arguments in favour of this view was made by Dr. Spencer R. Weart in his 1998 book “Never at War, Why Democracies Will Not Fight One Another.”
In his book, Dr. Weart suggests the spread of liberal democratic systems provides the model for peace. “When states avoid war so thoroughly,” he wrote, “can that be a mere accident, or is there some deeper reason? If a general reason exists then we may already have at hand, in peaceful democratic regions like Western Europe, the blueprint for a solution to the problem of war.”
War and Democracy a Topic of Scholarly Inquiry
Scholars have studied this subject for years in an attempt to answer the question: “Does democracy equal peace?” The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is “No.”
Two liberal democracies may never have gone to war with one another, but they frequently get into military conflicts with others. The United States during its 233 years as a republic has been involved in at least 22 wars, including, but not limited to: The Spanish-America War (1898), Dominican Intervention (1965), Vietnam War (1957-75), Invasion of Grenada (1983), and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Emerging Democracies at Greatest Risk of War
Columbia University political scientists Jack Snyder and Edward Mansfield have shown that the most war-prone nations of all are those in transition to democracy. In an article in the May/June 1995 issue of Foreign Affairs the two professors point out that countries rarely become democracies overnight and that the evolution is generally quite volatile. “Statistical evidence covering the past two centuries,” they wrote, “shows that in this transitional phase of democratization, countries become more aggressive and war-prone, not less, and they do fight wars with democratic states…
“In fact, formerly authoritarian states where democratic participation is on the rise are more likely to fight wars than are stable democracies or autocracies.”
And, the writers cited two contemporary examples: Serbia and Croatia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.
While the evidence is strong that what Immanuel Kant hoped for has come to pass the process of getting there is fraught with obstacles.
 |
