Since it's published in a purely academic journal and almost certainly would escape the attention of most of you, I thought I would take a moment to mention a new article by David Sobek in the June 2005 issue of International Studies Quarterly. Sobek examines Machiavelli's work and whether or not what Machiavelli terms "imperial regimes" (which can be either democratic or autocratic) are indeed more prone to initiate international conflict (as Machiavelli hypothesizes). Through two sets of statistical analyses (one focused on Renaissance Italy, the other on the modern international system since 1920) Sobek finds strong support for this proposition. It's an important article if you are interested in how domestic institutions affect the foreign policy behavior of states. It deepens our knowledge of the differences between the foreign policies of democracies and autocracies, but it also makes some key insights dealing with the differences that exist among democracies that should be of great interest to anyone interested in the idea of a democractic peace. One central point is that increasing the size of a country's electorate without increasing the role that non-elites play in government increases the likehood that a country will initiate a militarized conflict. The paper is titled "Machiavelli's Legacy: Domestic Politics and International Conflict". Posted by armand at May 27, 2005 02:29 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs