2025/10/08 by Michael Tomz, Jessica Weeks · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence #International Relations and Foreign Policy #Political Conflict and Governance
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0003055425101056
openalex publication_date 2025/10/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Studies have found that voters in democratic countries are far more reluctant to use military force against democracies than against nondemocracies. This pattern may help explain why democracies almost never wage war against other democracies. In an important contribution, Rathbun, Parker, and Pomeroy (2025) propose that the apparent democratic peace in public opinion is an artifact of failing to account for race. Rather than democracy itself influencing support for war, they argue, the term “democracy” cues assumptions about the adversary’s racial composition, and those racialized assumptions are the true drivers of support for war. We reevaluate RPP’s evidence, concluding that their data do not support their predictions. In fact, their novel experiments provide powerful evidence that democracy affects support for war, independent of race. Our findings contribute to major debates about both regime type and race in international relations, as well as the design and interpretation of survey experiments.