Die Gewalt der Demokratie

Democratic war study – drawing upon the notion of a specific democratic inclination to the use of force – is the study of democracy without democracy. This is the conclusion drawn by Valerie Waldow in her conceptual analysis of current interpretations of the relationship between democracy, liberalism and war. The author shows that even critical approaches in this area tie on liberal assumptions about the international and generalise a hermetic conception of democracy. In this way, they remain attached to democratic-theoretical weaknesses of previous research on Democratic Peace and reproduce its ideological effects. Drawing upon the notion of the essential contestability of political concepts the book concludes with a plea for the politicisation of research into democratic war.