Demokrati - skyddar det mot fred? : – en teoriprövande fallstudie på konflikten mellan Ryssland och Georgien 2008

The aim of the following paper has been to test the democratic peace theory through applying it on the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008. This to either falsify the theory or come to the conclusion that the states’ democracy was not satisfactory in regards to the definition of liberal democracy. The questions asked are: Was Russia and Georgia democratic states? Is democracy a protection from war? And which aspects of the liberal democratic theory, if any, were not satisfactory in either of the countries? The results show that the democratic peace theory is valid in this case and that neither one of the states were democratic. The aspects which were not satisfactory were the following: Freedom of speech, fair and equal rights for minorities, the delegation of executive power and a fair judiciary. Keywords: Democracy, Democratic peace theory, Russia, Georgia, Liberal Democracy, Larry Diamon