Democratic Peace Theory

I guess... Some empirical value? It's hard for me to comment because I don't know much about this, (but gosh darn it I will do it any way) but the opinions of the populace toward war are always going to be important for actually engaging in that war in modern society - I think a free democracy just amplifies that effect, both because it's spread through the media and because candidates are likely to, eventually, be forced to capitulate to anti-war sentiment if it grows strongly enough to too adversely affect their candidacy. I mean, Russia was hardly a democracy in the early twentieth century, but the commitment to the first world war was a huge source of pressure leading to the overthrow of both the Tsar and the liberal provisional government - soldiers deserted and discontent cropped up (hue) in rural areas with every soldier that had to be quartered and every sack of grain that was taken. On the general reluctance of well educated liberal democracies to go to war with each other, though, I think the 'well-educated' and 'liberal' aspects are probably more significant than the democratic one. We value a high quality of life and freedom that a full-scale war-time economy simply could not provide, due to things like necessary (and significant) tax hikes and the likelihood of conscription. There's really no issue between developed nations that war would resolve satisfactorily enough to be justified when it can be tackled through diplomacy and economic avenues. War's just not that common any more, and it's even less common between closely aligned states, which liberal democracies tend to be. That's just what I've been thinking about it. Basically, it's a factor, but definitely not the only one.