Disputes For Votes: Institutional Variation Among Democracies and Trade Disptue Propensity.

Research examining the impact of democratic governance on the behavior of states in the international system has focused primarily on the contrast between democracies and non-democracies. Past research has demonstrated that democratic states are more likely to experience trade disputes at the GATT than are their non-democratic counterparts. This paper extends this research to examine the impact of different types of democratic institutions on the trade dispute propensity of states. By focusing on the community of democracies, this paper explores the effects of variations in domestic institutions on state behavior. Using a new dataset of trade disputes and the World Bank Database of Political Institutions, this paper demonstrates that variation in domestic institutions has a significant effect on the propensity of states to engage in trade conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]