Edward D. Mansfield

TL;DR: Mansfield and Snyder as mentioned in this paper argue that the acceleration of democratic transformations is more likely to mitigate international conflicts, and instead of using their influence for pushing authoritarian states towards liberalization, Western governments should focus on devising strategies for managing democratic transitions in ways that minimize the risk of war involvement.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the domestic political conditions under which states have concluded such agreements and, more generally, explore the factors affecting interstate economic cooperation, finding that democratic countries are about twice as likely to form a preferential trading agreement as autocratic countries.

TL;DR: The authors found strong evidence that trade attitudes are guided less by material self-interest than by perceptions of how the U.S. economy as a whole is affected by trade, and that education's effects are less representative of skill than of individuals' anxieties about involvement with outgroups in their own country and beyond.

TL;DR: The authors argue that regional institutions will foster economic openness and bolster the multilateral system, promoting protectionism and conflict, while some observers fear that regional economic institutions, such as the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mercosur, and the organization of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), will erode the multiilateral system that has guided economic relations since the end of World War II.

TL;DR: In this paper, Mansfield and Snyder argue that states in the early phases of transitions to democracy are more likely than other states to become involved in war and that the best way to promote democracy is to begin by building the institutions that democracy requires such as the rule of law and only then encouraging mass political participation and elections.