ABSTRACT
This chapter explores an alternative and less well-known source for contemporary ideas about the democratic peace in the work of the British utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Any assessment of Bentham's views on legitimacy of non-Western and non-liberal political systems runs into two interpretive problems: Bentham sometimes expressed quite contradictory views, particularly as between his private and public writings. His later writings from the turn of the nineteenth century are definite in their support for democracy as the legitimate system of government. Kant's Perpetual Peace, best-known of Enlightenment peace plans, reflects his deontological ethical perspective and couches its argument in universalist and cosmopolitan terms. John Rawls advocates principles of international law based on respect for sovereignty and human rights, which are acceptable to both liberal societies and well-ordered' but non-liberal societies. Bentham's approach combines a universalist recognition of moral value of individuals and their preferences, with recognition that specific cultural circumstances are likely to produce differences in what constitutes legitimate government.
