Democide: Difference between revisions

{{Genocide}}{{Discrimination sidebar}}

'''Democide''' refers to "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by [[special agent|government agent]]s acting in their [[authoritative]] capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command". The term, first coined by [[Holocaust]] historian and statistics expert [[R.J. Rummel]] in his book ''Death by Government'', has been described by renowned Holocaust historian [[Yehuda Bauer]] as a better term than [[genocide]] to refer to certain types of mass killing.<ref name="Harff 1996">{{cite journal|last=Harff|first=Barbara|year=1996|title=Death by Government by R. J. Rummel|journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History|publisher=MIT Press|volume=27|issue=1|pages=117–119|doi=10.2307/206491|jstor=206491}}</ref><ref name="Harff 2017">{{cite book|last=Harff|first=Barbara|year=2017|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-54463-2_12.pdf|chapter=The Comparative Analysis of Mass Atrocities and Genocide|editor-last=Gleditish|editor-first=N. P.|title=R.J. Rummel: An Assessment of His Many Contributions|volume=37|series=SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice|location=New York|publisher=Springer|pages=111–129|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-54463-2_12|doi-access=free|isbn=9783319544632}}</ref> According to Rummel, this definition covers a wide range of deaths, including [[forced labor]] and [[concentration camp]] victims, [[extrajudicial]] [[Summary execution|summary killings]], and mass deaths due to governmental acts of criminal omission and neglect, such as in deliberate [[famine]]s like the [[Holodomor]], as well as killings by ''de facto'' governments, for example, killings during a [[civil war]].<ref name="Harff 1996"/><ref name="Harff 2017"/> This definition covers any [[murder]] of any number of persons by any government.<ref name="Harff 1996"/><ref name="Harff 2017"/>

Rummel's figures for Communist governments have been criticized for the methodology which he used to arrive at them, and they have also been criticized for being higher than the figures which have been given by most scholars<ref name="Harff 19962">{{cite journal |last=Harff |first=Barbara |date=Summer 1996 |title=Review. Reviewed Work: ''Death by Government'' by R. J. Rummel |journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History |location=Boston, Massachusetts |publisher=The MIT Press |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=117–119 |doi=10.2307/206491 |jstor=206491}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Hiroaki |first=Kuromiya |date=January 2001 |title=Review Article: Communism and Terror |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |location=Thousand Oaks, California |publisher=SAGE Publications |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=191–201 |doi=10.1177/002200940103600110 |jstor=261138 |s2cid=49573923}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Paczkowski |first=Andrzej |date=Spring 2001 |title=The Storm over ''The Black Book'' |url=http://archive.wilsonquarterly.com/essays/storm-over-black-book |journal=The Wilson Quarterly |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=28–34 |jstor=40260182 |via=Wilson Quarterly Archives |accessdate=31 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Weiner |first=Amir |date=Winter 2002 |title=Review. Reviewed Work: ''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression'' by Stéphane Courtois, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Panné, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Margolin, Jonathan Murphy, Mark Kramer |journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History |location=Boston, Massachusetts |publisher=The MIT Press |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=450–452 |doi=10.1162/002219502753364263 |jstor=3656222 |s2cid=142217169}}</ref><ref name="Dulić 2004">{{cite journal |last=Dulić |first=Tomislav |date=January 2004 |title=Tito's Slaughterhouse: A Critical Analysis of Rummel's Work on Democide |journal=Journal of Peace Research |location=Thousand Oaks, California |publisher=SAGE Publications |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=85–102 |doi=10.1177/0022343304040051 |jstor=4149657 |s2cid=145120734}}</ref><ref name="Karlsson & Schoenhals 20082">{{cite book |url=https://www.levandehistoria.se/sites/default/files/material_file/research-review-crimes-against-humanity.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915200301/http://www.levandehistoria.se/sites/default/files/material_file/research-review-crimes-against-humanity.pdf |archive-date=2016-09-15 |url-status=live |title=Crimes Against Humanity under Communist Regimes – Research Review |publisher=Forum for Living History |year=2008 |isbn=9789197748728 |editor-last1=Karlsson |editor-first1=Klas-Göran |location=Stockholm, Sweden |pages=35, 79 |quote=While Jerry Hough suggested Stalin's terror claimed tens of thousands of victims, R.J. Rummel puts the death toll of Soviet communist terror between 1917 and 1987 at 61,911,000. In both cases, these figures are based on an ideological preunderstanding and speculative and sweeping calculations. On the other hand, the considerably lower figures in terms of numbers of Gulag prisoners presented by Russian researchers during the glasnost period have been relatively widely accepted. ... It could, quite rightly, be claimed that the opinions that Rummel presents here (they are hardly an example of a serious and empirically-based writing of history) do not deserve to be mentioned in a research review, but they are still perhaps worth bringing up on the basis of the interest in him in the blogosphere. |editor-last2=Schoenhals |editor-first2=Michael |via=Forum för levande historia |accessdate=November 17, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Harff 20172">{{cite book |last=Harff |first=Barbara |title=R.J. Rummel: An Assessment of His Many Contributions |publisher=Springer |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-319-54463-2 |editor-last=Gleditsch |editor-first=Nils Petter |series=SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice |volume=37 |location=New York City, New York |pages=111–129 |chapter=The Comparative Analysis of Mass Atrocities and Genocide |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-54463-2_12 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-54463-2_12.pdf |doi-access=free |accessdate=30 August 2021}}</ref> <ref>For example, ''[[The Black Book of Communism#Estimated number of victims|The Black Book of Communism]]'' estimates the number of those killed in the USSR at 20 million ({{cite book|last=Courtois|first=Stéphane|year=1999|chapter=Introduction: The Crimes of Communism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC|title=The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression|volume=|series=|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press|page=4|isbn=9780674076082}})</ref>