While recounting a punishing accumulation of atrocity stories, kill anything that moves advances four relatively straightforward arguments. Rummels numbers, after a while, become too numbing. He presents the primary results, in tables and figures, as well as a historical sketch of the major cases of democide, those in. Regardless, death by government, is an essential piece of the puzzle to understand the primary fact of the twentieth century.
If our government oppresses than we citizens who vote for it and support it with our tax dollars and adherence to its lows, etc. He presents the primary results, in tables and figures, as well as a historical sketch of the major cases of democide, those in which one million or more people were killed by a regime. In addition, he gives a summary of the situation or the war that the numbers address. Pdf the comparative analysis of mass atrocities and genocide.
I would just like to read a few things from the first chapter of death by government by mr. For this very reason, it should be read in history classes not just across america, but around the world. The files also contain personnel records and financial information for defendants that should not be made public. Rummels research argues that the death toll from democide is far greater than the death toll from war. In the 20th century, the death toll from genocide, massacres, forced starvation, expulsions and other atrocities is estimated to have exceeded 170 million. Rummel goes on to say that basically within some 70 years between. Rummel is recognized for his calculation of deaths caused by governments for which he coined the term democide. Rummels corollary to lord actons dictum is power kills. Rummel so, for the readers of my novels, here is a factual supplement that does all that. Attempting the impossible calculating capitalisms death. His work on democide was embraced by liberals and realists alike, but also harshly.
Death by government rj rummel, who wrote the book, death by government states that prior to the 20th century. For the soviet union rummels estimates for democide are grossly inflated, to the point of absurdity. Rummel coined the term democide for murder by government compare genocide, and his research claims that six times as many people died of democide during the 20th century than in all that centurys wars combined. Pdf rudolph rummel and i are both products of northwestern. He spent his career studying data on collective violence and war. In power kills, he tied together his work on democracy and the various kinds of human conflict. The statistics to prove these assertions have been assembled by prof. Thus, in order to have a government protect us from one death, we allow the government to kill hundreds of times more people than it saves. In death by government, rummel does not aim to describe democide itself, but to determine its nature and scope in order to test the theory that democracies are inherently nonviolent. Author rummel defines democide as the intentional killing of people by government, and goes into detail on what this includes. On this graphic, there is an ideology circle, where people killed by conflicts waged by us in the name of democracy amounts to about 14 million people. This is an infographic of the main causes of death in the 20th century.
The problem of power, as rummel terms it, remains with us todayjust ask residents of angola, bosnia, chechnya, georgia, and rwanda, among many, many other lands. Case studies and quantitative analysis show that ethnic, racial, and religious diversity, economic development, levels of education, and cultural differences do not account for this killing. Ethnic cleansing bleaches the atrocities of genocide. Having studied over 8,000 reports of government caused deaths, he concludes that there have been 262 million victims of democide in the last century. Summary and conclusions 20th century democide death by. From 1900 to 1987, state, quasistate, and stateless groups have killed in democide genocide, massacres, extrajudicial executions, and the like nearly 170,000,000 people. First, it links all the relevant estimates, sources, and calculations for each of the case studies in death by government, and all additional cases of lesser democide for which data have been collected. Death by government genocide and mass murder since 1900. War and democide author rudy rummel remembered hawaii. Rummel its horrifying that its both possible and necessary to parse different kinds of mass slaughter by governments. Article information, pdf download for democracy, power, genocide, and mass murder. Rummel discusses genocide in china, nazi germany, japan, cambodia, turkey, yugoslavia, poland, the. Although nothing is beyond dispute in the social sciences, rummels view on the existence of a democratic peace has become the dominant view among contemporary researchers. During the 1980s and 1990s there were fairly bitter disputes within.
And this is the probable estimate, the high figure is 115m. Historians tell us that during the 20th century perhaps as many as 200 million civilians were. Rummels fourth book in a series devoted to genocide and government mass murder, or what he calls democide. Notes this is a prepublisher edited version of the preface in r. It provides a substantial theoretical as well as epistemological basis for the democratic peace proposition, which has received a lot of attention in recent years. It contains names, phone numbers, and other personal information of witnesses and victims. Rummel power kills, absolute power kills absolutely. He claims 61 million excess deaths for the soviet period, the vast majority of which being pre1953. In death by government, rummel does not aim to describe democide itself, but to. Even were we to have total access to all communist archives we still would not be able to calculate precisely how many the communists murdered. But the message is clear when it comes to forms of government, the freer it is, the less likely the government is to kill its own. I started this research in 1986 and the cutoff year for the collection of data was made 1987.
He was a man of many talents, and to some of his readers he may also have seemed to present. Are rj rummels death toll estimates on democides of the. Maintained by jennifer heming white contributor 46824467. Death by government foundation for economic education.
Death by government is a depressing, unnerving book. The numerous case studies are a mizture of carefully wrought. His study is filled with statistics and charts and graphs and is well documented. Ending famine, poverty, democide, and war, nashville. Democide is the term developed by us political scientist rj rummel who defines democide as the murder of any person or. Rummel argues that in the last century totalitarian governments killed. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read death by government. The value of this is the listing of each source, its estimate, and comments qualifying the estimate. Based on unit surveys, a rough estimate of 3040% of dead and missing were noncombat deaths. We are going to have all these references listed as part.
This new power principle is the message emerging from my previous work on the causes of war1 and this book on genocide and government mass murderwhat i call democide. The case for human liberty and limited government has never been made more effectively than by this fearsome book. Attempting the impossible calculating capitalisms death toll. Naturalnewsblogs democide the murder of people by a. Rummel redefined the term to include governments that also commit genocide, politicide, and even mass murder. Has the usa killed the most people in human history. He spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination. Separate volumes examined the soviet union 1990, china 1991, and nazi germany 1992, before he summed it all up in death by government and statistics of democide 1997. Rummels understanding conflict and war ucw predicted that the work would not have the immediate impact that one might. Rummel s fourth book in a series devoted to genocide and government mass murder, or what he calls democide. According to the vietnamese governments national survey and assessment of war casualties 2017, there were 849,018 pavnvc military personnel dead, including combat death and noncombat death, from the period between 1955 and 1975. First, it asserts that this grim dimension of the vietnam war was ignored at the time, has been neglected in the scholarship, and is today forgotten in popular memory.
Rj rummel who argues that government power is a lethal plague that devastates human life and that government power is the best predictor back to index the forensics file the ld file 9 targeted killing of violence. The subtitle of this book was democracy as a method of nonviolence. The term was hardly known but soon caught on after the political scientist r. Rummel genocide history democide communism death killing 20th century libertarianism conservative. Thus, in order to have a government protect us from one death, we allow the government to kill. Deceased prolific writer rudolph joseph rummel who wrote death by government was a professor of political science who taught at the indiana university, yale university and university of hawaii. Rummel does not include combat deaths and executions in his definition of democide. He no longer investigated only wars or deadly quarrels, but mass murder or death by government rummel, 1994.
Rummels book death by government 1994, about 110 million people, foreign and domestic, were killed by communist democide from 1900 to 1987. In the 20th century theodore abel coined the term democide in order to define the murder of any person or people by a government. Rummels five volume work understanding conflict and war is an ambitious, comprehensive theoretical approach to international as well as domestic conflict. Rummel but was well known in the profession as rudy. Rather, democide is best explained by the degree to which a regime is.