EBP 1

Article: Democracy, Power, Genocide, and Mass Murder
Author: R.J.Rummel

Summary:

This article by R.J.Rummel breaks down the connection between democracy, power, genocide, and mass murder to form the concept of 'democide'. The concept of democide encompasses the idea of Governments intentionally killing their people, and extends to the likes of genocide and politicide. 

 

The key aim within this article was to prove that the theoretical hypothesis, 'the more democratic freedom a nation has the less likely its government will commit foreign or domestic democide'. This is a direct influence of democratic institutions using processes such as voting, mediation and compromise during social conflicts to hinder the level of domestic and foreign democide.   

 

Rummel has tested the hypothesis through five research stages; (1) collection of data from 1900 to 1987, (2)delineating the data's dimensionality via factor analysis, (3) hypothetical independent variable, (4) data collection for control variables and a separate analysis to reduce variables and their multicollinearity, and (5) tested whether the democracy-totalitarian was best accounted for democide. 

 

From the testing stage Rummel further explores whether total, domestic and foreign democide, and the rate of democide demonstrate difference patterns within the democide data collected within the study. 

Rummel has hypothesized that the patterns would display democracy having a inverse relationship to very little to foreign democide, and a deep connection to domestic democide. The patterns examined reflect this hypothesis. 

 

It is important to note that when grouping data throughout the scaling/testing stage it was difficult. This is due to the confusion between the terms totalitarian and political power that are yet to be defined and understood. Thus as a result democracies scales position communist countries at the democratic scale end and monarchies at the opposite end (no electoral systems).  

 

Overall the findings throughout this extract align with the hypothesis, thus this study emphasizes that democracy should be seen as a general method of non-violence. 

Context: 

Rummel was a political scientist based in the United States of America and a professor at Indiana University. Rummel work had a heavy focus on data on collective violence and war, with the strong view of wanting to help towards the elimination of war or finding realistic resolutions.

 

Within this article Rummel is attempting to establish whether or not there is a clear connection between democracy and foreign/domestic democide: "the more democratic freedom a nation has the less likely its government will commit foreign or domestic democide." 

This article is a political science attempt at exploring date from 1900-1987 to explore how regimes, democratic or not, interacted with violence and its innate connection to a countries democratic standing. 

Link to Current Discussions: 

Today democracy is thriving nationwide, with a number of countries still following orthodox democratic  traditions. However, it is important to note that there are numerous countries that have strayed from democracy. For instance, China, Russia and North Korea are examples of countries that do not follow democracy, and have a high level of violence present within their domestic and international affairs. An example of this being the war between Russia and Ukraine which has caused countless deaths and immense violence. Thus, democide is still heavily present with countries continuing to have high levels of domestic and international violence. 

Conclusion: 

In conclusion, in this article Rummel has used a five stage test to prove that there is a connection between democratic nations having a lower level of internal and international violence. Hence proving that democracy can be seen as a method of non-violence within nations, and that reflecting the evident connection between democracy and a nations involvement in violence.  

- Singh's Blog