IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ginixx/v36y2010i2p169-184.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Capitalism, Peace, and the Historical Movement of Ideas

Author

Listed:
  • John Mueller

Abstract

A logical and causal exploration of the growing acceptance of capitalism and peace, or war aversion, is part of what Robert Dahl has called “the historical movement of ideas.” Although war aversion and the acceptance of free-market capitalism have undergone parallel and substantially overlapping historical trajectories, support for capitalism does not on its own logically or necessarily imply war aversion or support for peace. Not only must capitalism be embraced as an economic system, but at least three other ideas must be accepted as well: prosperity and economic growth must be taken as a dominant goal; peace must be seen as a better motor than war for development, progress, and innovation; and trade, rather than conquest, must be held to be the best way to achieve the dominant goal. Moreover, the causal direction may well be misspecified: it is not that free-market capitalism and the economic development it spawns cause peace, but rather that peace causes—or facilitates—capitalism and its attendant economic development. This also may explain why peace is more closely associated with capitalism than with democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • John Mueller, 2010. "Capitalism, Peace, and the Historical Movement of Ideas," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 169-184, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:36:y:2010:i:2:p:169-184
    DOI: 10.1080/03050621003785066
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03050621003785066
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03050621003785066?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCloskey, Deirdre Nansen, 2006. "The Bourgeois Virtues," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226556635.
    2. Drescher, Seymour, 1987. "Capitalism and Antislavery: British Mobilization in Comparative Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195205343, Decembrie.
    3. Eltis, David, 1987. "Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195041354, Decembrie.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Mousseau, 2010. "Coming to Terms with the Capitalist Peace," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 185-192, May.
    2. Massoud Tansa G. & Magee Christopher S., 2012. "Trade and Political, Military, and Economic Relations," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-39, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher David Absell, 2023. "British slave emancipation and the demand for Brazilian sugar," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(1), pages 125-154, January.
    2. Klas Rönnbäck, 2014. "Slave ownership and fossil fuel usage: a commentary," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 1-9, January.
    3. Niclas Berggren & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 177-207, May.
    4. Harry Hummels & Patrick Nullens, 2022. "‘Other-wise’ Organizing. A Levinasian Approach to Agape in Work and Business Organisations," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 211-232, October.
    5. repec:jpe:journl:1443 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Yalcintas, Altug, 2012. "İktisat doga bilimlerinin Mekke’si mi oluyor?: Toplumsal ve doga bilimleri iliskisi uzerine bir atıf analizi [Is economics becoming the Mecca of Biology?: A citation analysis of the relationship be," MPRA Paper 43493, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Verdier, Thierry & Bisin, Alberto, 2017. "On the Joint Evolution of Culture and Institutions," CEPR Discussion Papers 12000, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Brent Butgereit & Art Carden, 2011. "Capitalism, Socialism And Calculation," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 41-45, October.
    9. Mark Pennington, 2015. "Realistic Idealism and The Project of Political Economy," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 366-379, October.
    10. Whatley, Warren, 2012. "The Gun-Slave Cycle in the 18th century British slave trade in Africa," MPRA Paper 44492, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Pies, Ingo, 2023. "Ethik des Kapitalismus," Discussion Papers 2023-06, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    12. Kelly, Morgan & Ó Gráda, Cormac, 2022. "Connecting the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions: The Role of Practical Mathematics," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 841-873, September.
    13. William Kingston, 2014. "Schumpeter and the end of Western Capitalism," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 449-477, July.
    14. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "The Invisible Hand?: How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined Since AD 500," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199608133, Decembrie.
    15. Aki Tomizawa & Li Zhao & Geneviève Bassellier & David Ahlstrom, 2020. "Economic growth, innovation, institutions, and the Great Enrichment," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 7-31, March.
    16. repec:jpe:journl:1368 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Whatley, Warren C., 2018. "The gun-slave hypothesis and the 18th century British slave trade," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 80-104.
    18. repec:jpe:journl:1439 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Gregory Wolcott, 2015. "The New (Old) Case for the Ethics of Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 127-146, November.
    20. Gordon Redding & Michael Witt, 2009. "China’s business system and its future trajectory," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 381-399, September.
    21. Kovacs, Oliver, 2024. "Exaptationary Industry 4.0: Graphene as pathfinder?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    22. Ross B. Emmett, 2020. "James M. Buchanan and Frank H. Knight on democracy as “government by discussion”," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 303-314, June.
    23. Desierto, Desiree & Koyama, Mark, 2024. "The Political Economy of Status Competition: Sumptuary Laws in Preindustrial Europe," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(2), pages 479-516, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:36:y:2010:i:2:p:169-184. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GINI20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.