Dean Voris Babst (1921 – 3 September 2006) was an American sociologist, who wrote the first academic paper arguing that

democracies Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...

do not fight among themselves. He also became staff scientist for the New York State Narcotic Addiction Control Commission, and wrote several books on the subject.

Democratic peace theory

Babst published the first scholarly paper in the present field of

democratic peace theory The democratic peace theory posits that democracies are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. Among proponents of the democratic peace theory, several factors are held as motivating peace between democratic s ...

in ''Wisconsin Sociologist'' in 1964. He also published a slightly popularized version in an industrial trade journal ("A Force for Peace", ''Industrial Research'', April 1972). In the article, Babst suggests that the existence of independent nations with elective governments greatly increases the chance for the maintenance of peace. As an example, he uses France and Great Britain, which fought multiple wars before acquiring a freely elected government.

References

1921 births 2006 deaths American sociologists {{sociology-stub