Capitalism, Democracy and the Prevention of War and Poverty

For a very large part of the world’s population, poverty and war are still part of everyday life. Drawing on insights from several disciplines, this book attempts to find scientific answers to explain the relationship between conflict and poverty.

This interdisciplinary volume brings together a range of arguments that synthesize both democratic and capitalist peace theory. Supported by a large body of research, contributors contend that nations with institutions that maximize individual political and civil rights minimize the probability of fighting each other. The volume includes:

• contributors from leading and award winning scholars in the field, including Bruce Russett and Erik Gartzke
• topics such as democratization and economic development, situated within the broader contexts of globalization and modernization
• contributions supported by empirical analyses, systematizing democratic and capitalist peace theories

This book will be vital reading for students and scholars of International Relations and globalization, and also for a broader range of subjects including sociology, political science and economics.

Dr. Peter Graeff is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. His research interests include positive and negative social capital, statistics/methodology, conflict and military sociology. Previous publications include Why Nations Arm in Age of Globalization, Comparative Sociology, 2 (4), 2003, (with Guido Mehlkop).

Dr. Guido Mehlkop is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Dresden University of Technology, Germany. His research interests include the institutional and cultural determinants of economic growth and income inequality; the economic theory of conflict and crime, and military sociology.