A Cross-Cultural Study of Political Participation and Peace

政治参与与和平的跨文化研究

• 批准号: 8921265
• 负责人: Bruce Russett
• 金额: $ 3.3万
• 依托单位: Human Relations Area Files
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1990
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1990-05-01 至 1992-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8921265&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cross; Cultural; Study; Political; Participation

Increasing evidence suggests that democratic countries rarely fight wars with other democratic countries. In a world where democracy seems to be becoming a more common form of government, this evidence would further suggest that international wars will become less common. Nevertheless, the evidence is not conclusive: other influences, such as mutually high levels of income or participation in an alliance, may also help to explain the absence of war between many democratic countries. Moreover, the theoretical understanding of why democracies may behave peacefully toward one another is not yet fully persuasive. To understand this phenomenon better, this project examines patterns of war and peace between very different kinds of units, namely, the usually small ethnographic units that have been systematically studied by anthropologists. The project will scale a representative sample of such societies on a dimension ranging from hierarchical to participatory political systems, and then inquire (with proper controls) whether participatory societies have less internal war than do hierarchical ones, and whether in relations with other societies participatory societies are less likely to fight other participatory societies than hierarchical ones. By establishing these patterns, and the social processes that promote them, the project should help in understanding the basis of relations between larger units such as nation-states. The project includes a Research Experience for Undergraduates component that involves students in the coding and collection of data that will be used for subsequent analysis. The two students should have an exciting and informative educational experience working on this inter-disciplinary project under the direct supervision of three outstanding scholars.

越来越多的证据表明，民主国家很少与其他民主国家发生战争。在一个民主似乎正在成为一种更普遍的政府形式的世界里，这一证据将进一步表明，国际战争将变得不那么常见。然而，证据并不是决定性的：其他的影响，如相互的高收入水平或参与联盟，也可能有助于解释许多民主国家之间没有战争的原因。此外，对民主国家之间为何可以和平相处的理论理解还不完全具有说服力。为了更好地理解这一现象，本项目考察了非常不同种类的单位之间的战争与和平模式，即人类学家系统研究过的通常较小的民族志单位。该项目将在从等级制度到参与式政治制度的各个维度上对这些社会的代表性样本进行缩放，然后询问（在适当的控制下）参与式社会是否比等级制度的社会有更少的内部战争。在与其他社会的关系中，参与式社会是否比等级制社会更不容易与其他参与式社会发生冲突。通过建立这些模式以及促进它们的社会过程，该项目应该有助于理解诸如民族国家之类的较大单位之间关系的基础。该项目包括本科生研究经验部分，涉及学生编码和收集将用于后续分析的数据。两位学生将在三位优秀学者的直接指导下，在这个跨学科项目中工作，并获得令人兴奋和丰富的教育经验。