Economics & Peace
For six decades, developed nations have not fought each other, while, historically, powerful nations are the most war prone. Statistical studies show democracies typically don’t fight other democracies. Yet, democratic nations go to war about as much as other nations overall. And recent research makes clear that only the affluent democracies are less likely to fight each other. Poor democracies behave much like non-democracies.
Nations with high levels of economic freedom not only fight each other less, they go to war less often, period.
The “democratic peace” is a mirage created by the overlap between economic and political freedom.
When democracy and economic freedom are both included in a statistical model, the results reveal that economic freedom is 50 times more potent in encouraging peace. Democracy does not have a measurable impact, while nations with very low levels of economic freedom are 14 times more prone to conflict than those with very high levels.
“Future Depends on Capitalizing on Capitalist Peace” by Erik Gartzke