D.M. Gibler and Jaroslav Tir. Territorial Peace and Democratic Clustering. Paper. Web Appendix.
A consistent and robust finding in the democratic peace literature is that democracies tend to cluster together in time and space. Most explanations for this finding center on the demonstration effects of neighboring democracies and the aid that established democracies can give transitioning states. We re-examine this phenomenon in light of recent studies connecting democratization to territorial settlement. Specifically, we argue that democratic clustering is the natural outgrowth of international border settlement. When states settle their border issues---for example, by peacefully transferring territory between them---they reduce the level of threat in the dyad, and this leads to decentralization, demilitarization and democratization. Thus, it follows that democracies cluster together geographically, as resolving border issues leads to democratization on both sides of the border. Analyses of the post-World War II period are supportive of our arguments. We discuss the challenges that our findings present for the broader democratic peace literature.
A consistent and robust finding in the democratic peace literature is that democracies tend to cluster together in time and space. Most explanations for this finding center on the demonstration effects of neighboring democracies and the aid that established democracies can give transitioning states. We re-examine this phenomenon in light of recent studies connecting democratization to territorial settlement. Specifically, we argue that democratic clustering is the natural outgrowth of international border settlement. When states settle their border issues---for example, by peacefully transferring territory between them---they reduce the level of threat in the dyad, and this leads to decentralization, demilitarization and democratization. Thus, it follows that democracies cluster together geographically, as resolving border issues leads to democratization on both sides of the border. Analyses of the post-World War II period are supportive of our arguments. We discuss the challenges that our findings present for the broader democratic peace literature.