Editing Democratic peace theory (section)

====Young democracies====
Several researchers have observed that many of the possible exceptions to the democratic peace have occurred when at least one of the involved democracies was very young. Many of them have therefore added a qualifier, typically stating that the peacefulness apply to democracies older than three years.<ref name="Doyle 1983"/>{{sfn|Russett|1993}}{{sfn|Rummel|1997}}{{sfn|Weart|1998}} Rummel argues that this is enough time for "democratic procedures to be accepted, and democratic culture to settle in." Additionally, this may allow for other states to actually come to the recognition of the state as a democracy.{{sfn|Rummel|1997}}

Mansfield and Snyder, while agreeing that there have been no wars between mature liberal democracies, state that countries in transition to democracy are especially likely to be involved in wars. They find that democratizing countries are even more warlike than stable democracies, stable autocracies or even countries in transition towards autocracy. So, they suggest caution in eliminating these wars from the analysis, because this might hide a negative aspect of the process of democratization.{{sfn|Mansfield|Snyder|2002}}{{sfn|Mansfield|Snyder|2005}}{{sfn|Owen|2005}} A reanalysis of the earlier study's statistical results emphasizes that the above relationship between democratization and war can only be said to hold for those democratizing countries where the executive lacks sufficient power, independence, and institutional strength.{{sfn|Braumoeller|2004}} A review cites several other studies finding that the increase in the risk of war in democratizing countries happens only if many or most of the surrounding nations are undemocratic.{{sfn|Ray|2003}} If wars between young democracies are included in the analysis, several studies and reviews still find enough evidence supporting the stronger claim that all democracies, whether young or established, go into war with one another less frequently;{{sfn|Ray|1998}}{{sfn|Ray|2003}}{{sfn|Hegre|2004}} while some do not.{{sfn|Schwartz|Skinner|2002|p=159}}