Macro-Psychology of Pax Democratica and its Limitations: Empirical Data versus Theory

0333408 - PSÚ 2010 eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Feierabend, I. K. - Klicperová-Baker, Martina
Macro-Psychology of Pax Democratica and its Limitations: Empirical Data versus Theory.
[Annual Scientific Meeting of International Society of Political Psychology /32./. Dublin (IE), 14.07.2009-17.07. 2009]
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70250504
Subject RIV: AN - Psychology

The empirical evidence for democratic peace (i.e. democracies do not go to war with each other while in domestic politics pursue peaceful conflict resolution) is generally acknowledged to be far more more persuasive than its theoretical moorings. The paper addresses this curious "disconnect between democratic practice and theory", by evaluating available explanations and linking classical discussions of liberalism and democratic theory (e.g. J. S. Mill, Berlin, Lasswell, Dahl) with such constructs as the frustration/aggression hypothesis, systemic frustration and relative deprivation theories (e.g. Dollard et al., Berkowitz, Gurr, Feierabend & Feierabend- Lorwin, Gupta) together with the underpinnings of the cultural triad of civic culture, civility and civic nationalism as the psychological prerequisites of stable democracies. In this fashion and additionally, the paper suggests a parsimonious resolution of the problem in the correspondence of theory and survey data in the previous research by Feierabend, Klicperova-Baker et al.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0178396