Let’s hear it for freedom: Over the last two centuries, says William L. Uryin … no two democracies — liberal representative governments with juridical rights for their citizens — have gone to war with each other. Democracies have made war, to be sure, but with authoritarian regimes. There have been bitter disputes between the United States and Great Britain, for example, over the border with Canada or between France and Britain over colonial aspirations in Africa, but the democracies involved have always found ways in the end to negotiate rather than go to war.
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William L. Uryin, “Getting to Peace: Transforming Conflict at Home, at Work, And in The World” (Viking, 1999)