Democratic peace theory

This paper is a study of “democratic peace theory” from the viewpoint of “religious democracy.” Kant, the outstanding German philosopher, introduced “democratic peace theory” to political sciences in the 18th century. Afterwards, the Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, underpinned the theory from an economic perspective. After the development of secular liberal democracy in the second half of 20th century, more attention was paid to the relationship between peace and democracy. At this stage, many political science researchers strengthened the “democratic peace theory”, using various statistical research methods. The strong reading of this theory, which has few supporters, claims that democratic countries have always peaceful foreign relationships. However, the weak reading maintains that democratic countries tend to resolve disagreements peacefully only in the relationships among themselves. The reading also concedes that these countries, in their relationships with non-democratic countries, have no differences with non-democratic countries concerning peacefulness. After a critical evaluation of “democratic peace theory”, the paper proposes the principle that the establishment of mutual equal respect culture among governments is a key factor in the establishment of world peace, whether these governments be secular democracies or religious democracies. Thus, the only way for developing world peace is that the West renounce the common idea that secular Western culture has priority over other cultures. This conception by West governments practically leads to the denial of the mutual equal respect principle in regulating the relationships among the West and the non-West. This the main obstacle to develop world peace.