^aInternational Studies, Southern Polytechnic State University, 1100 South Marietta Parkway, Marietta, GA 30060-2896, USA. E-mail: tnisley@spsu.edu

Abstract

In his article in International Politics, Harald Müller (2004) attempts to explain why some democracies fight wars through the development of two ideal types of democracy, one that adopts the stance of militant liberalism and the other of pacifist liberalism. This article offers a critique of Müller's argument and his classification of militant and pacifist democracies. As an alternative explanation I turn to empirical uniformities on war that have been identified through quantitative, data-based research as increasing the probability of the onset of war. These factors include power status, duration of independence, number and type of borders, the presence of enduring rivalry, and the level of economic development. I will demonstrate that these factors are more important in explaining the warlike nature of some democracies.