Session 24: Subjectivity of the Democratic Peace

Odo Oren in his article “the subjectivity of the Democratic peace” argues that democracies around the world tend to remain peaceful among them is not correct concept. He talks about three biases which are attached to this democratic peace.

First of all he says that democracy prevailing in American has become a benchmark against which all other polities are rated. Secondly he argues that prevailing democratic system in America has changed over last two century. The founding fathers of America favored republicanism because in this way voices of normal public can be heard without any favoritism. Lastly he emphasizes that outcomes of democratic peace is flawed in its basic nature. It took ‘regime type’ as an independent variable. The assumption about indigeneity of this variable is not right. I found all of his critics so interesting and applicable here. Ido Oren points out that Germany having one of the greatest political systems is ranked lower than America on democratic scale because America has become norm and all other polities ranked as compared to United States of America.

In the end, I am totally agreed with the author’s point of view that the claim that democratic states are more peaceful is not right. It is in fact, the idea of peace shaped by the one in power and adapted by those countries which has the same ideological approach. Hence it is about the constructed prevailing idea and not about democracy. Perhaps because of this idea, they reflects peaceful relationships among themselves.