Violence Prone Transition to Democracy Why Do Democracies Not Fight Each Other and Why Are Transition to Democracy So Violence-Prone?
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita et.al. “An Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace,” American Political Science Review. Vol. 93, No. 4 (December 1999).
Assignment Questions:
Duncan Hunter, Congressman from San Diego, argued last year that the United States should launch a preemptive military attack against North Korea. Given what you know about democracies and the conditions under which they are willing to start a war, how likely do you think it is that Donald Trump will follow Hunter’s advice? (Hint: in order to answer this well you need to explain what the likely repercussion to the U.S. would be for a preemptive strike, how this would affect President Trump’s ability to get re-elected, and to what degree Trump is likely to be influenced by this.)
