Free to Trade: Democracies, Autocracies, and International Trade

American Political Science Review

Vol. 94, No.2 June 2000

"Free to Trade: Democracies, Autocracies, and International Trade"

By: Edward D. Mansfield

Helen V. Milner

B. Peter Rosendorff

The central question that is explored in this article is what kind of political regime is best for free trading in domestic or international commerce. At the same time it address the variation between democracy and autocracy, not on variation within either regime type. Some of the major articles discussed in the author's review of the literature are the actors and their preferences; such actors as the chief executive and legislatures in a democracy and a unitary actor in autocracy. Also mentions one of the major aspect of trade, the noncooperative trade barrier settings. Which usually happens when countries do not agree to mutual trade settings. The other article in the literature tends to compare the level of trade barriers and regime type. It does this by looking at the level of trade barriers across the three types of regime pairs; if trade barriers are lower with in democracy pairs than pairs composed of an autocracy and a democracy.

The principal hypothesis the authors seek to test is "the ratification responsibility of the legislature in democratic states