Extending the Democratic Peace: the Role of Governmental Institutions for International Conflict

The primary goal of this project is to investigate the relationship between governmental institutions and the likelihood for states to engage in conflict internationally. As its secondary objective, the project models how this relationship between institutions and conflict changes over time and whether it differs between regions. The project covers all states that were or became independent during the period 1816-2001. The goals set out above are pursued by identifying three ways in which power is distributed and modified institutionally, with emphasis on the first: (1) type of electoral system for the lower house in the parliament; (2) whether the office with primary influence in the shaping of most major decisions affecting the state's domestic and foreign policy is presidential or parliamentary; and (3) whether power is distributed vertically through a federal system or is centralized. The project applies quantitative techniques to analyze cross-sectional time series data.