Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T12:17:19.504Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dictatorial Peace?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2004

MARK PECENY ,
CAROLINE C. BEER  and
SHANNON SANCHEZ-TERRY
MARK PECENY
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-1121 ([email protected]).
CAROLINE C. BEER
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Vermont, The Old Mill, P.O. Box 54110, Burlington, VT 05405-4110 ([email protected]).
SHANNON SANCHEZ-TERRY
Affiliation:
Ph.D. student, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Is there a dictatorial peace that resembles the democratic peace? This paper uses a new data set compiled by Barbara Geddes to examine the conflict behavior of three types of autocratic regimes—personalist, military, and single-party dictatorships—in the post-World War II era. We find some evidence that specific types of authoritarian regimes are peaceful toward one another. No two personalist dictators or two military regimes have gone to war with each other since 1945. These dyads were not less likely to engage in militarized interstate disputes than were mixed dyads, however. Although single-party regimes were the only homogeneous dyad in this study to have experienced war, multivariate analyses of participation in militarized interstate disputes suggest that single-party states are more peaceful toward one another than are mixed dyads. Thus, while we have found no unambiguous evidence of a dictatorial peace to match the robustness of the democratic peace, there is substantial interesting variation in the conflict behavior of specific types of authoritarian regimes. The analysis presented here demonstrates that studies of the impact of regime type on conflict behavior must work from a more sophisticated conception of authoritarianism.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 96 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 15 - 26
Copyright
© 2002 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreski Stanislav 1980 On the Peaceful Disposition of Military Dictatorships Journal of Strategic Studies 3 3 3 10Google Scholar
Bebler Anton 1987 Conflicts Between Socialist States Journal of Peace Research 24 1 31 46Google Scholar
Beck Nathaniel Katz Jonathan Tucker Richard 1998 Taking Time Seriously: Time-Series Cross Section Analysis with a Binary Dependent Variable American Journal of Political Science 42 4 1260 88Google Scholar
Bratton Michael van de Walle Nicholas 1994 Neopatrimonial Regimes and Political Transitions in Africa World Politics 46 4 453 89Google Scholar
Bremer Stuart 1992 Dangerous Dyads: Conditions Affecting the Likelihood of Interstate War, 1816–1965 Journal of Conflict Resolution 36 June 309 41Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita Bruce Lalman David 1992 War and Reason New Haven, CT Yale University Press
Bueno de Mesquita Bruce Morrow James Siverson Randolph Smith Alastair 1999 An Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace American Political Science Review 93 4 791 807Google Scholar
Dixon William 1994 Democracy and the Peaceful Settlement of International Conflict American Political Science Review 88 1 14 32Google Scholar
Doyle Michael 1983 Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs, Part 1 Philosophy and Public Affairs 12 3 205 35Google Scholar
Enterline Andrew 1998 Regime Changes and Interstate Conflict, 1816–1992 Political Research Quarterly 51 2 385 409Google Scholar
Farber Henry Gowa Joanne 1995 Polities and Peace International Security 20 2 123 46Google Scholar
Gaubatz Kurt Taylor 1991 Election Cycles and War Journal of Conflict Resolution 35 2 212 44Google Scholar
Gaubatz Kurt Taylor 1996 Democracy and Commitment International Organization 50 1 109 40Google Scholar
Geddes Barbara 1999a Authoritarian Breakdown: Empirical Test of a Game Theoretic Argument Paper presented at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, GA, September 2–5
Geddes Barbara 1999b What Do We Know About Democratization After Twenty Years Annual Review of Political Science 2 115 44Google Scholar
Gleditsch Kristian Ward Michael 1997 Double Take: A Re-Examination of Democracy and Autocracy in Modern Polities Journal of Conflict Resolution 41 3 361 83Google Scholar
Gleditsch Nils Petter Hegre Hâvard 1997 Peace and Democracy: Three Levels of Analysis Journal of Conflict Resolution 41 2 283 310Google Scholar
Gochman Charles 1991 Interstate Metrics: Conceptualizing, Operationalizing, and Measuring the Geographic Proximity of States Since the Congress of Vienna International Interactions 17 93 112Google Scholar
Huntington Samuel 1957 The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations Cambride, MA Harvard University Press
Jackson Robert Rosberg Carl 1982 Personal Rule in Black Africa Berkeley University of California Press
Jaggers Keith Gurr Ted Robert 1995 Tracking Democracy's Third Wave with the Polity III Data Journal of Peace Research 32 4 469 82Google Scholar
Jones Daniel Bremer Stuart Singer J. David 1996 Militarized Interstate Disputes, 1816–1992: Rationale, Coding Rules, and Empirical Patterns Conflict Management and Peace Science 15 2 163 213Google Scholar
Kant Immanuel 1795 1983 To Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch Hackett: Indianapolis
Kennan George 1947 The Sources of Soviet Conduct Foreign Affairs 25 4 566 82Google Scholar
Kramer Mark 1997a The Soviet Foreign Ministry Appraisal of Sino-Soviet Relations on the Eve of the Split Cold War International History Project Working Paper Series, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, http://cwihp.si.edu/publications.htm
Kramer Mark 1997b The Prague Spring and the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia: New Interpretations Cold War International History Project Working Paper Series, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, http://cwihp.si.edu/publications.htm
LaFeber Walter 1993 America, Russia and the Cold War 1945–1992 New York McGraw–Hill
Lake David 1992 Powerful Pacifists: Democratic States and War American Political Science Review 86 1 24 37Google Scholar
Linz Juan 1975 Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes Macropolitical Theory Reading, MA: Addison Wesley
Low Alfred 1976 The Sino-Soviet Split London University Press
Mansfield Edward Snyder Jack 1995 Democratization and the Danger of War International Security 20 1 5 38Google Scholar
McLaughlin Sara Gates Scott Hegre Hâvard Gissinger Ranveig Gleditsch Nils Petter 1998 Timing Changes in Political Structures: A New Polity Database Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 2 231 42Google Scholar
Morgan T. Clifton Campbell Sally 1991 Domestic Structure, Decisional Constraints and War: So Why Kant Democracies Fight? Journal of Conflict Resolution 35 2 187 211Google Scholar
Oneal John Russett Bruce 1997 The Classical Liberals Were Right: Democracy, Interdependence and Conflict, 1950–1985 International Studies Quarterly 41 2 267 94Google Scholar
Oren Ido Hays Jude 1997 Democracies May Rarely Fight One Another, but Developed Socialist States Rarely Fight at All Alternatives 22 493 521Google Scholar
Quinlivan James 1999 Coup-Proofing: Its Practice and Consequences in the Middle East International Security 24 2 131 65Google Scholar
Raknerud Arvid Hegre Hâvard 1997 The Hazard of War: Reassessing the Evidence for the Democratic Peace Journal of Peace Research 34 4 385 404Google Scholar
Reiter Dan Stam III Allan 1998 Democracy, War Initiation and Victory American Political Science Review 92 2 377 90Google Scholar
Remmer Karen 1989 Military Rule in Latin America Boston, MA Unwin Hyman
Remmer Karen 1998 Does Democracy Promote Interstate Cooperation? Lessons From the Mercosur Region International Studies Quarterly 42 1 25 51Google Scholar
Russett Bruce 1993 Grasping the Democratic Peace Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press
Russett Bruce Oneal John 2001 Triangulating Peace: Democracy, Interdependence, and International Organizations New York, Norton
Singer J. David Small Melvin 1994 Correlates of War Project: International and Civil War Data, 1816–1992 [Computer file 9905]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research
Spiro David 1994 The Insignificance of the Liberal Peace International Security 19 2 50 86Google Scholar
Stohl Michael Lopez George 1986 Government Violence and Repression Westport, CT Greenwood Press
Tucker Richard 1999 BTSCS: A Binary Time-Series—Cross-Section Data Analysis Utility Version 4.0.4 Cambridge, MA Harvard University http://www.fas.harvard.edu/\simrtucker/programs/btscs/btscs.html
Valenta Jiri 1991 Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia 1968: Anatomy of a Decision Baltimore, MD Johns Hopkins University Press
Weart Spencer 1994 Peace Among Democratic and Oligarchic Republics Journal of Peace Research 31 3 299 316Google Scholar
Wich Richard 1980 Sino-Soviet Crisis Politics Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.