Democracy and War in South America: the progress and limits of the defense of democracy in the search for peace

Abstract

This article aims, through a brief historical analysis of regional conflicts and the Theory of Democratic Peace,3 to analyze the defense of democracy in the South American region. This analysis is based on a review of the Additional Protocol on the commitment to democracy in the treaty establishing UNASUR. For that, it’s especially based on the analysis of the Additional Protocol to the Treaty constituent of Unasur on Commitment to Democracy. The current discussions on in regional organizations on the defense of democracy in the region show that this defense is closely linked to the promotion of peace in South America. In other words, the regional policy to promote peace has a theoretical basis (is theoretically based) on the belief that democracies do not fight wars against other democracies. This research showed that this process has limitations, since the region has been site of numerous cases of threat and actual use of force between states. The presented hypothesis defends the argument that the promotion of democracy in the region hasn’t been sufficient to prevent violent conflicts between states in the region, since national policies often outweigh political and regional interests, regardless of the political regime of States involved in disputes.