As Maoz And Russett have observed, there have been several problems with the Polity data set in the past but it currently is a shame that centralization data have been dropped entirely from Polity III and Polity IV. In contrast, further development on the former three-point “unity-federal” scale offered in earlier Polity data sets would be more helpful in developing the data sets put together for this paper than are the current data sets-"which have dropped this key variable totally. In the future, evaluations of democracy, based largely on Maoz and Russett’s JOINREG scale should be undertaken, enabling the MID data to be retested more in line with Maoz and Russett’s dyadic year research on democratic states. This would certainly be a significant test for federal war and peace theory espoused in this conceptual work.
Federalist structures traditionally have been designed to calm cross-national or cross-ethnic cleavages. Further, federalism has historically encompassed both democratic and non-democratic regimes. Federations and federalist regimes, such as the European Union, NATO, the United Nations and ASEAN, are going to play an ever greater part in the international system’s future. This ability, under federalism, to include both autocratic states and more democratic ones provides ample opportunity for new and significant developments in areas of both political scientific research and in public foreign policy decision making.
Federal organization, with its matrix-like division of powers, enables political economy, international relations, and comparative politics to converge in domains of research. This is extremely important as the global system becomes ever more integrated during the 21st century. Meanwhile, further research on federations, federal regimes, and war is certainly needed, especially as concerns independent variables not fully considered in my model: Such variables continue to be the roles of economic growth and wealth, alliances, contiguity, and military capability ratios. These were indeed, however, indirectly based on the political economic scoring device developed for and revealed in this paper (and its footnotes). Such COW data, along with. Maoz and Russett’s (1993), Lakes (1992), and Gartzke (1998)’s data, provide further material for using quantitative economic measures (separated from politics) rather than the qualitative variable used in my data set.
Further, critical comparison of federal and democratic peace theory models need now turn to Ward and Gleditsch (1998) and Gartzke’s critical (1998) pieces (just as this paper looked toward David Lake’s research on democratic peace). On the other hand, such later papers should also attempt to come to grips with how decentralization of governments as posed by federal theory, specifically including the concept and structure of matrix-like divided sovereignties among federal constituent states, plays an important role in peace theory-"as well as in the ongoing internationalist integration of states.
Finally, Merritt and Zinnes (1991) framework for democratic peace should be reviewed again for its apt political economic modeling and testing. Zinnes and Merritt’s proposed framework for democratic peace theory included full-interactions of society, political regime, economic regime, foreign policy process, and how all these affect foreign policy behavior. In conclusion, the traditional Hobbsian approach to states has implied that peace is destined to dominate domestic politics while war is to rage through competition and through self-maximizing efforts of states on the international level. Federal theory of shared sovereignties is, however, another option for looking at the international arena.
Whereas, some structures, such as federalism, may, in fact, (1) best promote competition and cooperation at both political and economic levels among states while (2) a federal peace may in turn enable economic development and durability of state actors over time. This durability then (3) increases room for actors to become more fully committed to the international regime while individual sovereign state actors are able to maintain peace at home and amongst one another through a federal framework. All three independent variables viewed in this federalist peace project-"federations, polity type, and political economic developments in the international system-"surveyed in this paper are found robust and should be integrated into one larger theory of peace, development, and foreign policy decision-making.
Axelrod, Robert 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathon 1997. “The Analysis of Binary Time--Series-" Cross-Section Data and/or Democratic Peace.” Political Methodology Working Paper Archive at UC-Riverside
Bueno de Mesquite, Bruce and Lalmon, David 1992. War and Reason. New Haven: Yale University.
Elazar, Daniel J. 1994a. Federalism and the Way to Peace. Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University Institute of Intergovernmental Relations.
Elazar, Daniel J. 1994b. Federal Systems of the World: A Handbook of Federalism, Confederal and Autonomy Arrangements, 2nd Ed., London: Longman.
Gartzke, Erik 1998. "Kant We all Just get Along? Opportunity, Willingness, and the Origins of the Democratic Peace", The American Journal of Political Science 42:1-27.
Gurr, Ted R. 1974. "Persistence and Change in Political Systems," The American Political Science Review 68: 1482-1504.
International Conflict and Cooperation Data (includes MID,ICB, and COW data sets), http://www.ssc.wisc.edu
KEVIN STODA has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades. He sees himself as a peace educator and have been a promoter of good economic and social development--making him an enemy of my homelands humongous spending and its focus on using weapons to try and solve global issues.
"I am from Kansas so I also use the pseudonym 'Kansas' when I write and publish. I keep two blogs--one with blogger and one with GNN. My writings range from reviews to editorials or to travel observations. I also make recommendations related to policy--having both a strong background in teaching foreign languages and degrees in teaching in history and the social sciences. As a midwesterner, I also write on religion and living out ones faith whether it be as a Christian, Muslim or Buddhist perspective."
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