Statistical Difficulties Due To Newness of Democracy
One problem with the research on wars is that, as the Realist Mearsheimer (1990, p. 50) put it, "democracies have been few in number over the past two centuries, and thus there have been few opportunities where democracies were in a position to fight one another". Especially if using a strict definition of democracy, as by those finding no wars. Democracies have been very rare until recently. Even looser definitions of democracy, such as Doyle's, find only a dozen democracies before the late nineteenth century, and many of them short-lived or with limited franchise (Doyle 1983), (Doyle 1997, p. 261). Freedom House finds no independent state with universal suffrage in 1900.
Wayman (1998), a supporter of the theory, states that "If we rely solely on whether there has been an inter-democratic war, it is going to take many more decades of peace to build our confidence in the stability of the democratic peace".
Read more about this topic: Democratic Peace Theory
Famous quotes containing the words difficulties, due, newness and/or democracy:
“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“I appeal now to the convictions of the communicants, and ask such persons whether they have not been occasionally conscious of a painful confusion of thought between the worship due to God and the commemoration due to Christ.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Harsh necessity, and the newness of my kingdom, force me to do such things and to guard my frontiers everywhere.”
—Virgil [Publius Vergilius Maro] (70–19 B.C.)
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”
—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971)