Domestic political institutions and the initiation of international conflict in East Asia: some evidence for an Asian democratic peace

Abstract

There is doubt about whether the "democratic peace" proposition applies in Asia. I theoretically deconstruct regime type into institutional components including political competition, constraint on the executive, and mass participation, and ask whether taking these as distinct causal factors gives more empirical purchase on the relationship of domestic political institutions to states' external conflict behavior. I find that higher levels of political competition are associated with a lower likelihood of conflict initiation, but only when the potential target is relatively democratic. Thus my directed dyad analysis is consistent with a democratic peace effect in East Asia. It is also suggestive regarding the observed "East Asian peace" that has existed since 1979, because levels of political competition have risen considerably in the region, beginning in the late 1970s.