Beacons of Hope? The Impact of Imposed Democracy on Regional Peace, Democracy, and Prosperity

In 2003, American policymakers linked the democratization of Iraq with greater peace, democracy, and prosperity in the Middle East. We elaborate this regional-level policy argument theoretically and test it empirically on a global sample of states for the twentieth century. We differentiate the impa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of politics 2005-11, Vol.67 (4), p.1075-1098
Main Authors: Enterline, Andrew J., Greig, J. Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beacons
Democracy
Economic growth
Effectiveness
Foreign Policy
Gross national product
Iraq
Iraq War-2003
Liberalism
Market economies
Peace
Peacetime
Political Change
Political science
Polities
Positive economics
United States of America
War
War conflict
Wealth
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Summary:In 2003, American policymakers linked the democratization of Iraq with greater peace, democracy, and prosperity in the Middle East. We elaborate this regional-level policy argument theoretically and test it empirically on a global sample of states for the twentieth century. We differentiate the impact of fully and weakly democratic externally imposed polities (“bright” versus “dim” beacons, respectively) on regional interstate war, democratization, and economic growth. We conclude that (1) bright beacons reduce, while dim beacons increase war; (2) bright beacons do not stimulate democratization, while dim beacons undermine democratization; and (3) bright beacons stimulate prosperity, while dim beacons undermine prosperity.
ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2508.2005.00351.x