ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the consequences for international relations of the spread of democracy. It analyzes each of these conditions in the light of recent processes of democratization. The argument that democracy is an important force for peace has as its most forceful advocate the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. A democracy, said Tocqueville in 1835, is "unable to regulate the details of an important undertaking, to persevere in a design, and to work out its execution in the presence of serious obstacles. Democratic openness and the internal disunity associated with democracy can lead to poor results in a bargaining process. Democratic norms must be ingrained before the domestic basis of the pacific union becomes secure, and such development of the political culture will take some time. One problem facing such investigations is the difficulty in determining what is actually meant in operational terms by more democracy and less democracy in foreign affairs.
