ABSTRACT
The liberal argument that democratic political structures form a precondition for stable peace orders in International Relations has become conventional wisdom among Western policy-makers. Immanuel Kant’s postulate developed in his ‘Perpetual Peace’ has been empirically substantiated. The liberal argument that democratic political structures form a precondition for stable peace orders in International Relations has become conventional wisdom among Western policy-makers. Immanuel Kant’s postulate developed in his ‘Perpetual Peace’ has been empirically substantiated. Cost–benefit calculations and the price of war-fighting might explain a certain reluctance of participatory polities to engage in military adventures. But such calculations should apply irrespectively of whether democratic systems deal with each other or with dictatorships. Rational choice arguments might explain why democracies pursue aggressive foreign policies under specific circumstances, but why societal support for such interventions can only be mobilized against authoritarian systems. Liberal democracies are characterized only by the rule of law, the constraints of checks and balances and participatory rule of the citizens.
