Question

Political scientists remain interested in the issue of security. As the number of interstate wars declines, realists and liberals offer different explanations for this trend. Discuss the claims of the hegemonic stability theory and the democratic peace theory. Which theory do you find more compelling when it comes to explaining the decline in interstate conflict and why?

Answer 1

Hegemonic stability theory:

The theory claims that the presence of a single, strongly dominated actor in the international politics leads to collectively desirable outcomes for all States in international system.

It is believed that international economic system is most likely to be open and stable , when there is a single dominant or hegemonic state, that has sufficiently large shares of resources and can willing to take a leadership & provide public goods.

But there are some arguments that the theory is limited by:

1. Extent to which public goods hypothesis holds many issues in international politics.

2. Extent to which implicit assumptions holds true that collective actions in the international system is impossible in the absence of dominant state.

Hegemonic Stability Theory must:

1. Incorporate dynamic processes.

2. Clarify role of hegemonic Power benevolent or coercive.

3. Clarify the notion of size ( absolute vs relative.)

Democratic Peace Theory:

"DPT is a theory which shows that democracies are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with identified democracies."

- Democratic leaders are forced to accept culpability for war looses to a voting public.

- Democratic Peace Theory claims that, democracies are more powerful than non-democratic countries.

-Latter it claims, that Democratic States do not fight with each other is widely regards as true by various scholars of international relations.

- Although many critics claims that democracies do not fight each other continues to be widely accepted in international relation discipline.

- While some argue that democracies are more peaceful to one another because of shared culture.

By knowing about the two theories , Democratic Peace Theory is more compelling than Hegemonic Stability theory in explaining the decline in interstate conflict.

Because , in Hegemonic Stability theory , it rely on single dominant state means , single state should have all Powers to handle everything , which is not good in case of any conflicts, as state want to get power and it harmed the other one.

In Democratic Peace Theory it is good for declining interstate conflict because various findings shows that pairs of Democratic States have lesser risk of interstate conflicts.

So, Democratic Peace Theory is more compelling.