Power kills Democracy as a method of nonviolence PDF
Preview Power kills Democracy as a method of nonviolence
DEMOCRACY AS A METHOD OF HOHVIOLEHCE Political Science History Power Kills Democracy as a Method of Nonviolence Rummel R. J. This volume is the most recent of a comprehensive effort by R. J. Rummel to understcmd and place in historical perspective the entire subject of geno- cide and mass murder, or what he calls democide. It is the fifth in a series of volumes in which he offers a detailed analysis ofthe 120,000,000peoplekilled as a result of government action or direct intervention. In Power Kills, Rummel offers a realistic and practical solution to war, democide, and other collective violence. As he states “The it, solution...is to foster democratic free- dom and to democratize coercive power and force. That is, mass killing and LIBRABY mass murder carried out by govern- Square ment is a result ofindiscriminate, irre- sponsible Power at the center.” Rummel observes that well-estab- PUBLIC lished democracies do not make war on and rarely commit lesser violence against each other. The more demo- Copley cratic two nations are, the less likely is war or smaller-scale violence between BOSTON them. The more democratic a nation is, the less severe its overall foreign vio- lence, the less likely it will have domes- tic collective violence, and the less its democide. Rummel argues that the evi- dence supports overwhelmingly the most importantfactofour time: democ- racy is a method of nonviolence. Tlie extent of mass killing in war, internal collective violence, and democide in our lifetime and through- out history is profoundly depressing. Eliminating it seems hopeless. To those with an appreciation ofhistory, all that seems possible is to moderate and per- haps in some cases avoid a particular war. It is Rummel’s burden in this book to show that these realists are wrong with regard to war, violence, genocide, and mass murder. Power Kills will be a compelling read for historians, political scientists, and scholars interested in the study of war and violence. (Continued on back flap) Digitized by the Internet Archive 2017 with funding from in Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/powerkillsdemocrOOrumm I > '^v Rummel J. ff. Power Kills DEMOCRACYAS A METHOD OF HOHVIOLEMCE Transaction Publishers New Brunswick (U.SJt.) and London (U.K.) JC423 .R794 1997 © Copyright 1997 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conven- tions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Transaction Publishers, — Rutgers The State University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903. This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 96^5040 ISBN: 1-56000-297-2 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rummel, R. J. (Rudolph J.), 1932- Power kills democracy as a method of nonviolence / R.J. Rummel. : cm. p. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-56000-297-2 (cloth alk. paper) : 1. Democracy. 2. Nonviolence. 3. Peace. I. Title. JC423.R794 1997 321.8—dc21 96-45040 CIP Contents Figures and Tables vii Preface ix 1. Introduction 1 Part I: The Most Important Fact of Our Time Introduction to Part I 23 2. No War between Democracies 25 3. Democracy Limits Bilateral Violence 51 4. Democracies are Least Warlike 63 5. Democracies are Most Internally Peaceful 85 6. Democracies Don’t Murder Their Citizens 91 Why Part II: are Democracies Nonviolent? Introduction to Part II 101 A New 7. Fact? 103 8. What is to be Explained? 117 9. First-Level Explanation: The People’s Will 129 10. Second-Level Explanation: Cross-Pressures, Exchange Culture, and In-Group Perception 137 1 1. Third-Level Explanation I: Social Field and Freedom 153 12. Third-Level Explanation II: Antifield and Power 191 13. Power Kills 203 References 213 Name Index 231 Subject Index 237
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