Bulletin n. 2/2007
October 2007
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Ripsman Norrin M.
    Peacemaking and Democratic Peace Theory: Public Opinion as an Obstacle to Peace in Post-Conflict Situations
    in Democracy and Security , Volume 3, Issue 1, January ,  2007 ,  89-113
    Democratic Peace Theory rests on several assumptions. Structural variants assume that, in all states, the public is more peaceful than its leaders and that, in democratic states, institutional checks and balances restrain bellicose leaders. Normative variants assume that democratic peoples and their leaders share norms encouraging the peaceful resolution of disputes with other democracies and respect for the wishes of other free peoples. These assumptions are challenged, however, by the experience of post-conflict peacemaking by democratic states. When negotiating peace, public opinion tends to be more bellicose than its leaders, even when the former enemy has become either democratic or quasi-democratic. This paper examines the post-war peace processes between France and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949-1954 and between Israel and the Palestinian Authority since 1992. It argues that the logic of democratic peace theory might apply to states with no past history of war, but not to states which have recently been to war.
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