Lucrecia GarcĂa Iommi
ISA 2005Annual Conference
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that they are peaceful with each other: Just as liberal ideas cause liberal democracies to tend
away from war with one another, the same ideas can lead these states into war with illiberal
states.
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It difficult to reconcile the idea that the liberal values preclude war with liberal democracies
but not with other kind of states. Aren’t wars equally costly? The difference lies in the fact
that when a regime is a liberal democracy, preferences are in principle peaceful. And
therefore intentions can be presumed, in principle, peaceful too. Moreover power
asymmetries are less threatening between democracies because polities are open, which
makes them easy to anticipate, accountable governments make the exercise of power more
predictable and institutionalized, and also democratic leaders, used to compromising in the
domestic realm, are more likely to compromise with other democratic leaders, from who
they can expect the same behavior. Thus, among liberal democracies the mechanism of
offensive intentions described by Balance of Threat theory does not take place.
The model
Arguably, the Democratic Peace theory can account for fellow liberal democracies (alike
states) perceiving US overwhelming power as basically not threatening, while for states
that are internally organized in a non democratic illiberal fashion it will indeed represent a
threat. And moreover, fellow democracies already live under an international order that
reflects preferences similar to their own and thus further their interest. Ergo, although they
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“…Liberal ideas are the source – the independent variable – behind the distinction foreign policies of
liberal democracies. These ideas give rise to two intervening variables, liberal ideology and domestic
democratic institutions, which shape foreign policy. Liberal ideology prohibits war against liberal
democracies, but sometimes calls for war against illiberal states. Democratic institutions allow these drives to
affect foreign policy and international relations…”Owen, John M. 1994: 93. Also for this reason different
relations may result between democracies whether liberals or illiberal are in office (friendly or rockier), but
even when liberals are not in office they will work through the democratic mechanisms (i.e. freedom of
speech) to avoid war with a fellow liberal country
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