Social versus conservative democracies and homicide rates

The purpose of this paper is to critique recent findings that democratic practices are positively related to homicide rates.

Economic rational choice model supported by empirical evidence.

It was found that higher homicide rates are only characteristic of democracies that fail to respond to the median voter's call for equitable social development.

The paper makes an original distinction between conservative and social democracies, operationalizes this distinction theoretically and empirically, and shows that higher homicide rates are a phenomenon of conservative, not social, democracies.