Once states decide to reinforce their borders, there is an enormous variation in border control strategies. Some border control strategies are strengthened with electric fences and/or joint patrolling. Other border control strategies are strengthened with shoot to kill policy. This paper argues that democratic culture explains why some states adopt shoot to kill policy and others not. This paper uses indicators of Freedom House index as proxies for democratic culture. Statistical results are telling. The results of Mann-Whitney test demonstrate that shoot to kill policy is associated with lower values of democratic culture. The results are statistically significant as the p value of the test result (Asymp. Significance) is 0.005. The main argument of this paper is that states with democratic culture are characterized by the norm of-non-violence -that is- the peaceful resolution of domestic dispute. When the norm of non-violence is internalized by political elites, it creates an obligation on political actors to show restraint about adopting the use of force. So in states with democratic culture even when political actors decide to strengthen their borders, shoot to kill policy does not become a policy option.
