UA political science professor receives grant

Douglas Gibler, a political science professor, has received a grant from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation to study types of government and conflict around the globe.

"It was a great surprise," Gibler said. "Guggenheim doesn't usually fund research projects like this."

The grant was the first given to Gibler's subfield in more than five years. Gibler said his research examines how territorial conflicts between countries affect their type of government.

"How countries develop determines, in a large degree, the type of government that they are going to form," Gibler said. "Democracies tend to occur in areas with low-threat environments. If you have friendly neighbors you are more likely to ease up your tension and allow for civil liberties and voting."

Gibler said democracies exist today in clusters - in North America, western Europe and, more recently, South America, for a reason.

"If you have threats, the only way to safeguard against them is to build up the military," he said. "The problem with that is that if you have a big military and you're a leader, you can just go ahead and take over the country with the military."

For example, Gibler said, adjacent countries Canada and the United States are both democratic because they had little tension with each other to begin with, which allowed them to relax regulation, allowing for civil liberties and suffrage.

Contrasting examples can be found in the Middle East, Gibler said, where border tensions have created much more autocratic societies. Gibler said the origins of al-Qaida can be traced to U.S. troops being deployed in Mecca and Medina, which Osama bin Laden considered to be profaning sacred soil.

Gibler's case studies were taken from around the globe starting after the Napoleonic Wars' end in 1815 until present day.

Around 80 different wars were examined. How democratic a government is was determined by the University of Maryland's polity project, which places regimes from 1800-2004 on a scale from strong democracy to dictatorship. Their criteria include inquiries such as elections and whether they are contested, whether leaders step down, and how many citizens vote.

In further research, Gibler said he will examine what effect this tendency has on existing democracies, including Iraq.

"If I'm right, that's problematic," Gibler said. "You would think creating a democracy in Iraq would be a good thing. But you also have to pay attention to the Kurds in the north, and questions with the boarder of Turkey, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait."

Gibler's research will also expand to look at how an external threat affects individuals and their tolerance, and institutions within the state, such as federal versus state governments.