the democratic peace

how does schumpeter simply define democracy?

a method for choosing who governs, decided by a competitive struggle for the people’s vote

what had to be added to the simply definition of democracy?

contestation, inclusion, and civil liberties

what is contestation?

real competition for power

what is inclusion?

who is actually allowed to participate

what are civil liberties?

free speech, a free press, and the right to organize

what are two ways to organize a democracy?

parliamentary and presidential systems

what is a parliamentary system?

the exec, a prime minister is drawn from the legislature and stays in office as long as they hold their confidence

if it loses the confident vote, the government falls

what is a presidential system?

the exec, a president is elected separately from the legislature for a fixed calendar term

even if the legislature is opposed, it normally survives unless there is impeachment

how does a parliamentary system depend on executive and legislative?

it fuses them together

how does a presidential system depend on executive and legislative?

it deliberately keeps them apart

how is party discipline in a parliamentary system?

tight. voting against your own government can bring it down and cost you your own seat in the following election

how is party discipline in a presidential system?

loose. a legislator’s survival does not depend on the president, so they have more room to vote on their own issues or even against their own president

what is the first fact of the democratic peace?

democracies are likely to fight wars and be involved in military disputes as nondemocracies

ex: france and uk constantly fight, but not one another.

what is the second sace of the democratic peace?

over the last 2 centuries, democracies have almost never fought a full war against one another

what are the two families that explain the democratic peace?

structural and institutional, and normative

what is the structural and institutional model?

domestic institutions constrain and select what leader can do, but the constraint only works when both sides face it

what is the normative model?

shared democratic norms of compromise operate between democracies, but cannot be applied against a nondemocracy.

what is maoz and russet’s structural constraint model?

in a democracy, starting a war needs public support, legislative approval, and funding. these checks and balances create slow, delayed decision-making

why does maoz and russet’s structural constraint model only stop with democracies?

if two democracies get into a fight, the slow process gives both sides time to negotiate a peaceful solution.

if a democracy faces a fast-moving dictatorship, the democracy can't afford to slow down, so war can still happen.

what is the selectorate?

the amount of people needed to select a leader

democracy: registered voters

autocracy: the ruling party’s inner circle

what is mesquita and friends’ selectorate theory?

leader’s survival depends on satisfying the winning coalition (the smaller group within the selectorate whose support keeps that leader in power)

in democracies, that winning coalition is large, so leaders must broadly deliver successful policy, not reward a small clique

what are kant’s three conditions that bring peace between republics?

republican constituents, pacific union of republics, cosmopolitan law of hospitality

what do the shared norms of compromise explain?

shared norms of compromise, applied only among fellow republics, explain why democracies rarely fight each other and why they are not otherwise unusually peaceful