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How many democracies have started wars against other democracies? Others have cited Pinker's Better Angels of our Nature, so I won't rehash. But I couldn't di
by bernardom 13y ago
How many democracies have started wars against other democracies?
Others have cited Pinker's Better Angels of our Nature, so I won't rehash.
But I couldn't disgree more with your comment that "the world's deepest and most serious problems have always been political, and always will be, and will always be beyond resolution by better gadgets." Technology CAN help. It can't help everything, and I don't think he was claiming that. But if you think your live would have been better in the 14th century, you're insane.
- ntintrstdin 13y agoFunny you mentioned that. There is a wiki on this! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_between_democracies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_between_democracie... My favourite example is Finland v. Allies in WW2.
- blowski 13y agoIf we define democracy as liberal, pluralistic democracies with a respected constitution, then that list shrinks dramatically.
- teddyh 13y agoInhabited solely, of course, by True Scotsmen.
- vacri 13y agoNot really. When people say 'democracy', they generally mean modern states with universal suffrage. They don't mean to encompass "ancient greek states where only wealthy native men could vote" nor "enlightenment-era Polish noble republics". In this argument, I find that it's the people who claim any system that has more than one voter to be a 'democracy' as the ones bringing in the semantic ambiguity. The spirit of the argument "there is no(t much) war between democracies" is that "when everyone gets a say, they generally don't choose to march off to war". Given the spirit of the argument, to then define democracy as forms of government with quite limited voter eligibility, is somewhat intentionally missing the point.