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This is an incomplete list of those conflicts referred to as wars between democracies; many of the references are to the opponents and supporters of the democratic peace theory or liberal peace, which asserts that democracies never or rarely go to war with each other. Definitions of democracy and war vary; three supporters of the theory hold, on different grounds, that there are no exceptions whatever; others hold that it is a strong correlation, and therefore find marginal exceptions to be unsurprising, and in some cases illuminating.
Few students of the democratic peace discuss wars prior to the nineteenth century; democracies were extremely sparse - and whether Athens or Florence is comparable to modern democracies is debateable. Data sets on wars do not always extend back any further; data on much earlier wars - including such questions as the number of troops on each side - are difficult to obtain.
Early Democracy
Wars involving the Greek democracies
The Peloponnesian war included a great many conflicts among Greek city-states. The principal war was between Athens (and her allies), most of them democracies, on one side, and Sparta, (and her allies), most of them oligarchies - although most of them held elections among a citizen body. But the war lasted for twenty-seven years, with a brief armistice, and a great many side-conflicts occurred; and states changed from democracy to oligarchy and back again. Most notable of these was the Sicilian Expedition, 415 BC-413 BC, in which Athens went to war with Syracuse. Bruce Russett finds 13 conflicts between "clear" democratic pairs (most of these being Athens and allies in the Sicilian Expedition) and 25 involving "other" democratic pairs.
Athens, like other Greek democracies, was a direct democracy in which decisions on war and peace were taken by an Assembly of the people. Their chief advisors were ten (elected) generals, and orators who held no office, and were under "more direct and immediate control" by their constituents than modern statesmen. Athenian citizens had properly formalized rights, including political, legal, property rights and freedom of speech. Athens, like most Greek democracies, elected the officials in charge of war and foreign policy.
Russett adds that the norms of democracy - and of peace between democratic states - were still evolving; he sees the democratic peace as emerging through time. Athenian domestic politics (the best documented of any Greek state) was not itself peaceable; an unwelcome legislative proposal or an unsuccessful battle could result in a death sentence for the proposer or the general. James Lee Ray also lays stress on the differences between Greek democracy and modern democracies: many Greek democracies had a large non-citizen population, and all of them had slaves - and direct democracy may have different social effects than elections.
Wars involving the Roman Republic
In particular, the Punic Wars, 264 BC-146 BC, with over 1000 deaths in battle. The leaders in both Rome and Carthage were elected. However, both states are usually considered oligarchies. The Roman Republic had large numbers of non-voting slaves, former slaves, Italian allies, and foreigners. Roman citizens had different political rights based on heredity and wealth. The Roman Senate had considerable power and was dominated by noble families. See also the discussion in Never at War regarding whether there is enough information about Carthage to determine the exact form of government there at the start of each of these wars.
Nineteenth Century
Like all instances in this article, these depend upon the definition of democracy used.
20th Century
Polish-Lithuanian War
Fought in 1920, with about 1000 estimated battle deaths. In both states, elections had been held with universal suffrage. In the polity scale, Poland received a +8 rating in combined democracy/autocracy in 1920, while Lithuania received a +7 in democracy and a +4 in combined democracy/autocracy. The conflict is by both Polish and Lithuanian historians seen as a part of the wars of independence from the Soviet Union (see the article on the Polish-Lithuanian War).
Paquisha War
War fought in 1981 between Ecuador and Peru. The leaders of both countries had been democratically elected. Ecuador receives a rating of +9 in the polity scale of combined democracy/autocracy, while Peru receives a +7, meaning that both countries are classified as democratic, and Ecuador even as "very democratic". However, the "war" involved only as high as two hundred deaths in battle. Furthermore, the Peruvian democracy was less than one year old and the Ecuadorian less than 3 years. In addition, both nations lacked democratic control over their militaries. p. 70, 316.
References
- Spencer Weart, James Lee Ray, and R. J. Rummell
- See, for example, Thomas Heine Nielsen, An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, p. 85, also Doyle, Russert, and others below.
- Oxford Classical Dictionary, "Democracy, Athenian". M.I. Finley Democracy, Ancient and Modern, 1973, p. 18 (quote; and cited by Ray),
- Blackwell, Christopher. "Athenian Democracy: a brief overview" (PDF). Dēmos: classical Athenian Democracy. Retrieved 2006-07-28.
- McManus, Barbara F. Social Classes in the Late Republic
- UNRV, Roman Slavery
- kondrat/Rome Government
- Pennell, Robert F. Ancient Rome
- Babst, Dean V. "Elective Governments — A Force For Peace." The Wisconsin Sociologist 3 (1, 1964): 9-14.
- Jeanne Gowa, Ballots and Bullets: the Elusive Democratic Peace, p.50
- ^ "Polity IV Project". Retrieved March 4, 2006.
- Weart, Spencer R. (1998). Never at War. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07017-9.