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The Foreign Policy of a Democratic Socialist Regime: From Intervention to Protection to Warfare

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  • Makovi, Michael

Abstract

Discussions of democratic socialism have focused on whether that system is compatible with domestic civil liberties. Less attention has been paid to its foreign policy implications. Despite the widespread acceptance of the democratic peace hypothesis, democratic socialism would be incompatible with peaceful foreign relations. Economic intervention and economic planning – even democratic – cannot be successful without insulating the domestic economy from foreign competition. This implies economic nationalism and autarky. Moreover, democratic socialism is often justified by the notion that the democratic will of the people should be absolutely sovereign. Such a conception of democracy has no place for constitutional limits on power. Such an unlimited democracy would soon prove illiberal and liable to be captured by a demagogic authoritarian dictator, and this would only exacerbate the deleterious foreign policy consequences of economic nationalism. Democratic socialism is therefore incompatible with the cosmopolitan and humanitarian values of democratic socialists.

Suggested Citation

  • Makovi, Michael, 2016. "The Foreign Policy of a Democratic Socialist Regime: From Intervention to Protection to Warfare," MPRA Paper 70308, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:70308
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hyung Min Kim & David L. Rousseau, 2005. "The Classical Liberals Were Half Right (or Half Wrong): New Tests of the ‘Liberal Peace’, 1960-88," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 42(5), pages 523-543, September.
    2. Makovi, Michael, 2016. "Labor Economics in a Planned Economy: F. A. Hayek and John Jewkes on the Impossibility of Democratic Socialism," MPRA Paper 70174, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Makovi, Michael, 2016. "Interest Groups and the Impossibility of Democratic Socialism: Hayek, Jewkes, and the Arrow Theorem," MPRA Paper 70173, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Hayek, F. A. & Caldwell, Bruce, 2007. "The Road to Serfdom," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226320540 edited by Caldwell, Bruce, Febrero.
    5. Makovi, Michael, 2016. "The Impossibility of Democratic Socialism: Two Conceptions of Democracy," MPRA Paper 70172, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hayek; Road to Serfdom; democratic socialism; market socialism; economic democracy; totalitarianism; public choice; government failure; impossibility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • B24 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist; Scraffian
    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • F0 - International Economics - - General
    • P10 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - General
    • P20 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - General
    • P30 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - General
    • P50 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - General

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