Journal of Politics

E-ISSN: 2791-7525

Ali Ihsan Kahraman, Ph.D., Discipline-oriented Research Paper

The Critical Approach to Democratic Peace Theory: Cultural or Systemic Democratization

Abstract

This article suggests that the democratic peace theory made a mistake in its Kant readings. To argue this suggestion, this paper is organized as follows. Firstly, an unheeded dimension of Kantian philosophy about the democratization process of states and societies will be introduced. Secondly, the connections between the democratic peace theory and Kant will be revisited in terms of this unheeded dimension. The aim of this section is to prepare the discussion on the failure of the Democratic Peace Theory of Kant. Thirdly, the empirical analysis is based on three different and wide datasets which are World Governance Indicators 2016, the Uppsala Conflict Database Program 2016 (UCDP), and Polity IV. The concluding remarks will summarize how the democratic peace theory misread Kant.

Citation

Kahraman, A.I. (2021). The Critical Approach on Democratic Peace Theory: Cultural or Systemic Democratization. Journal of Islamic Politics, 1(1), 7-29.

Bio of the Author

Ali Ihsan Kahraman graduated from Istanbul Bilgi University and the University of London International Program with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Management, which was created by the London School of Economics. He established a conceptual theoretical framework for foreign policy in his master’s thesis at Sabanci University, which compared Turkey’s energy geopolitics at the regional and global levels. His research on the China-led Belt and Road Initiative’s effects on the world’s political economy earned him a PhD from Istanbul University. He established the Journal of Islamic Politics, a scholarly publication, and he currently focuses on the Islamic world, Global Political Economy, International Relations Theory, and Turkish Foreign Policy. At Istanbul Medeniyet University, he is still employed in the department of international relations.