Sanctions and Democracy: The Limits of Peace

Scholars have argued whether democratic peace also holds in the realm of economic sanctions – whether there is an economic peace. Substantial amount of evidence has been gathered both for and against economic peace. This article provides a new insight, with the use of the updated TIES data set on sanctions and two data sets on democracy (Polity IV and V-Dem), into the topic of economic peace. It finds that democracies are both more likely to issue economic sanctions and that there is no economic peace. In fact, the opposite holds and democracies are more likely to sanction one another. This study indicates that economic coercion in international relations is driven by the constraints and incentives that public opinion and interests groups place on democratic leaders.