REASONABLE DOUBTS
Critics of the democratic-peace hypothesis make two main counterarguments. Their first line of attack holds that the apparentpacifism between democracies may be a statistical artifact: becausedemocracies have been relatively rare throughout history, the absenceof wars between them may be due largely to chance. Evidence for ademocratic peace also depends on the time periods one examines and onhow one interprets borderline cases like the War of 1812 or theAmerican Civil War. Critics also note that strong statistical supportfor the proposition is limited to the period after World War II, whenboth the U.S.-led alliance system and the Soviet threat to WesternEurope's democracies discouraged conflict between republics.
A second challenge focuses on the causal logic of the theory itself.Democratic-peace proponents often attribute the absence of war betweenrepublics to a sense of tolerance and shared values that makes usingforce against fellow republics illegitimate. (As noted above, Weart'sversion of this argument emphasizes the tendency for republics to seesimilar states as part of their own "in-group.") If this theory istrue, however, there should be concrete historical evidence showingthat democratic leaders eschewed violence against each other primarilyfor this reason. But critics like Christopher Layne have shown thatwhen democratic states have come close to war, they have held back forreasons that had more to do with strategic interests than sharedpolitical culture. These cases suggest that even if democracies havetended not to fight each other in the past, it is not because they weredemocracies.
Instead of meeting these challenges head-on, Weart assembles his ownbody of supporting evidence and devises his own explanation for theapparent lack of war between republics. Although his arguments shouldnot be dismissed lightly, Never at War illustrates many of thelimitations that have marred this debate since its inception.
To begin with, Weart's treatment of historical materials is hardlyevenhanded. He is quick to embrace evidence that supports his argumentand even quicker to reject evidence that challenges it. Thus, hedismisses in a single footnote the claim that the democratic peace maybe a statistical artifact and treats the work of other skeptics withequal disdain. He also excludes the various wars between the Romanrepublic and its neighbors, including the brutal Punic Wars withCarthage, on the grounds that "no primary sources nor reliablesecondary sources survive." Yet he does not hesitate to use otherancient sources that buttress his claim, such as Thucydides andXenophon, even though they are by no means perfectly reliable. Modernclassicists generally agree that both Carthage and Rome were oligarchicrepublics, which suggests that excluding them was a largely arbitraryjudgment that just happened to leave Weart's central claim intact.