Concept of Democracy: Theories, Peace, and Democratic Peace Theory

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the concept of democracy, its various interpretations, and its impact on societal peace. It begins by defining democracy beyond its political system aspect, emphasizing equal rights and representation across different societal sections, including females, and explores its alignment with feminist and liberal theories. The essay then delves into the debate surrounding democracy's role in fostering peace, contrasting viewpoints that attribute peace to democracy versus those that highlight other factors. It examines the Democratic Peace Theory, discussing the argument that democracies do not engage in war with each other, and considers different types of democracies and their potential impact on peace. The essay also highlights the historical evidence supporting the idea that democratic countries are less prone to war due to their focus on the people's interests and their tendency to balance threats. Finally, it concludes that democracy is an essential factor in encouraging peace by fostering stability, harmony, and respect among nations, supported by various research and theories. The essay aligns the Democratic Peace Theory to prove how important democracy is in maintaining peace.

Running head: CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
Concept of democracy
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
Democracy is one of most popular and widely used themes in the current time due to the
increasing conflict across the world. However, it should also be noted that democracy is not only
related to the political system, which is widely believed but it is also related to the equal rights of
each and every element in the society. For example, equal rights and representation of the
females in the society can also be termed as the democracy and showing equal attitude and
actions towards every issue can also be considered as democracy. Hence, democracy is related to
the equal rights and representation of different class and sections of the society and not the
political system. The theory of feminism and liberalism can be effectively related and aligned
with the concept of democracy because both these theories talk about the equal rights and
provision. According to the theory of feminism, everyone irrespective of the genders should have
the equal rights and representation in the society and they should have equal authority (Mitchell,
2015). However, it is contradicting that democracy can create a growing zone of peace because
equal representation might create more conflicts in the society and definition of equal rights is
different to different sections.
According to the theory of liberalism, the government is essential in order to protect
people from any kind of harm from others (Ryan, 2017). However, it can be recognized that the
government itself has the ability to pose threat to the freedom or liberty of people. Liberalism
initially was created on the basis of personal freedom and democracy. Many scholars have
presented a counter argument to the theory stating that it is fictitious as there have been many
situations where the government had executed their power to restrict liberty of the people in the
society (Berlin, 2017). Aligning this theory with democracy it can be seen that democracy is an
element of liberalism as it talks about rule by the people and equality. In recent times, liberalism
has got a new meaning. Majority of the liberals in the society believe that all people must have

2CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
equal opportunity (Barry, 2017). Providing equal opportunity to everyone in the society
promotes peace in the society as the society is free of any kind of discrimination which helps in
making people stay together in the society with harmony. From this it can be understood that
democracy is important and can incorporate peace in the society. On the contrary, it has been
stated that it is not democracy that brings peace but it is the people who contribute to maintaining
peace in the society out of their willingness (Wolff, 2018). However, it can be seen that without a
democratic society which facilitates freedom of speech, fair trial, considers the views of the
minorities and equal rights individuals would not be motivated to make initiatives and behave in
a proper manner that would help in maintaining peace in the society. There is no individual who
likes to be treated unfairly, get discriminated and be deprived of the deserved rights and
opportunity and this can be a huge problem and lead to the rise in conflict and unethical behavior
which has the potential to disrupt the peace in the society.
From majority of the research it has been seen that the level of conflict, violence and
wars within states that are democratic are lower in comparison to the states where there is no
democracy (Waldner & Lust, 2018). The fact that democracy helps in growing peace in society
has been a debatable topic for years. Scholars suggest that equality in the society is one of the
major reasons that contribute to maintaining peace in the society (Paul, 2017). Many scholars, on
the other hand have stated that peace that is usually observed among the democratic countries are
not because of the type of regime rather by various different factors like gender norms, economic
factors and national interest (Simon, 2019). According to other scholars the relationship between
peace and democracy is casual however it is not democracy that causes peace but it is actually
peace that causes democracy thus stating that peaceful environment pave way for the emergence
of democracy (Warren, 2016).

3CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
Although there are scholars who reject the idea that democracy brings peace in the
society but a large section of people and research has stated that it is democracy that actually
brings peace in the society and the environment. According to the Democratic Peace Theory,
democracy is said to be the only way which can bring peace in the society as well as in the
world. The theory clearly states that democracies do not fight against each other (Roelofs, 2016).
However, scholars suggest that there are different types of democracies like national democracy,
participatory democracy, consensual democracy and liberal democracy which is followed by
different countries and the differences among these can cause issues among the democracies
(McCoy, Rahman & Somer, 2018). In contrary to this statement scholars have suggested that
democracies tend to maintain peace mutually due to the constitutional checks that do not give the
democracies opportunities and because of the complex structure of the democratic society
(Richmond, 2017). One of the biggest arguments that scholars present while supporting the
contribution of democracy in bringing peace is there has been no major war fought between
democratic countries since the year, 1789 (Hegre, Bernhard & Teorell, 2019). Moreover, it has
been seen that in democratic countries majority of the power is on the people of the country as
they vote their own governments thus the government of a democratic country mainly work to
fulfill the interest of the people and for the benefit of the countries. On the other hand it can be
seen that autocratic states usually earn rewards at the expense of their own societies. They
usually possess an imperialist bias and they tend to be expansionist and more prone to war in
comparison to democratic countries. Democratic countries on the other hand, tend to be
constrained and only wage wars under very restricted conditions. They enjoy great social support
for the policies in the country. The democratic states usually balance their threats and not powers
and form counter coalitions agin expansionist autocracies. According to scholars, the political

4CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
cultures of democracies encourage peaceful means of resolution of internal conflicts (Tarusarira
& Ganiel, 2016).
In the relation of peace and democracy it can be seen that the dominance is put on
democracy to push states to gain peace. This is because peace in a country has positive effects on
a country as well as on the people of the country. Langmore et al (2017) opines peace in a
country is vital as it gives stability and lets people live in harmony in the state which is one of the
essential needs of the people. If there is no peace then conflicts may arise which will result in
restricting the development of the country and also shatter the lives of the people of the country.
Thus it can be said that democracy has a huge role to play in encouraging peace and it is one of
the main reasons that has resulted in countries having respect and cordial relationship with each
other which has resulted in people being happy.
Democracy is considered to be a system that can be widely discussed in its nature of
providing benefits to all the people for their happiness and welfare. There are various theories
that have been aligned with democracy which promotes equal rights in the society. According to
various researches that has been conducted shows the importance of democracy that helps in
promoting peace in the world. There is a little hint of liberalism and feminism in democracy
which promotes and encourages equality and right to freedom which has helped in encouraging
peace in the world. Democracy has let people live peacefully and in harmony that has
contributed and encouraged peace in the world. From the essay, by aligning the Democratic
Peace Theory it can be seen that it is impossible to gain peace without democracy and democracy
has a huge role to play in maintaining peace. Thus it can be concluded that democracy is an
essential factor that has created a growing zone of peace.

5CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
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