The Democratic Peace and Territorial Conflict in the Twentieth Century

A new and original challenge to the foundations of the democratic peace literature.

This book presents a systematic reassessment of the theoretical and empirical foundations of the democratic peace literature. Three distinct theoretical models of how domestic political institutions shape the foreign policy choices of state leaders are developed and Huth and Allee then test hypotheses from each model against an original data set of 348 territorial disputes from 1919–95. Each territorial dispute is divided into three separate but related phases for empirical analysis: Challenge the Status Quo Stage, Negotiation Stage and Military Escalation Stage. Their statistical results provide strong support for the importance of democratic accountability and norms in shaping decisions to negotiate and settle disputes as well as to threaten force and escalate to war. The findings of this book address central debates and provide many insights into understanding when and why democratic leaders engage in cooperative or confrontational foreign policies.

1. Another study of democracy and international conflict?; 2. Pathways to conflict escalation and resolution in international disputes; 3. The international strategic context; 4. Domestic institutions and the political accountability model; 5. Domestic institutions and the political norms model; 6. Domestic institutions and the political affinity model; 7. Empirical results for decisions to challenge the status quo; 8. Empirical results for decisions to offer concessions in negotiations; 9. Empirical results for decisions to escalate with military force; 10. What have we learned about the democratic peace?

It is commonly said that democracies very seldom fight each other. Huth and Allee re-evaluate this claim by testing three theoretical models using 348 territorial disputes from 1919-95. The results support the importance of democratic accountability and norms in shaping the diplomatic and military policies of democratic leaders.

Paul K. Huth is Professor at the Department of Political Science and Senior Research Scientist at the University of Michigan.
Todd L. Allee is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Political Science of the University of Michigan.