Global peace and repression: a cross-country analysis

Past research and historical events suggest that the relationship between the peacefulness of a country and the degree of political and civil liberties afforded to its citizens has an inverted U-shape relationship such that the greatest unrest is observed at an intermediate level of freedom. Using the Global Peace Index (GPI), developed by the Institute for Economics and Peace (2010) in collaboration with the Economist Intelligence Unit, this study empirically tests this relationship and the results offer support for this nonlinear relationship. It is argued that while highly repressed societies experience a 'controlled' peace, highly free societies also experience peace stemming from the basic freedoms such as the right to expression and assembly and participation in policy creation. Alternatively, when political and civil freedoms are at some intermediate level, the freedoms offered may not be strong enough to serve as a substitute for protest, yielding greater conflict, crime, and less peace. Policy implications of the findings are also offered.