View source for Democide

{{short description|Government-sanctioned killing}}
{{use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Genocide}}
'''Democide''', or '''populicide''', 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 created ''democide'' as an extended term to include forms of government murder not covered by ''[[genocide]]''. According to Rummel, democide surpassed war as the leading cause of non-natural death in the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=2003|orig-date=1997|url=https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE5.HTM|title=Statistic of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900|edition=hardback|location=Charlottesville, Virginia; New Brunswick, New Jersey|publisher=Center for National Security Law, School of Law, University of Virginia; Transaction Publishers, Rutgers University|isbn=9783825840105|access-date=2 December 2021|via=Power Kills}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|date=1 February 2005|url=http://democraticpeace.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/democide-vs-other-causes-of-death/|url-status=live|title=Democide Vs. Other Causes of Death|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509184209/https://democraticpeace.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/democide-vs-other-causes-of-death/|archive-date=9 May 2021|website=Democratic Peace|access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref>

== Definition ==

Democide is the murder of any person or people by "their" government (normally the one under whose jurisdiction they live), including [[genocide]], [[politicide]], and [[mass murder]]. Democide is not necessarily the elimination of entire cultural groups but rather groups within the country that the government feels need to be eradicated for political reasons and due to claimed future threats.<ref name="Harff 1996"/><ref name="Harff 2017"/>

According to Rummel, genocide has three different meanings. The ordinary meaning is murder by government of people due to their national, ethnic, racial or religious group membership. The legal meaning of genocide refers to the international treaty on genocide, the [[Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide]]. This also includes nonlethal acts that in the end eliminate or greatly hinder the group. Looking back on history, one can see the different variations of democides that have occurred, but it still consists of acts of killing or mass murder. The generalized meaning of genocide is similar to the ordinary meaning but also includes government killings of political opponents or otherwise intentional murder. In order to avoid confusion over which meaning is intended, Rummel created ''democide'' for this third meaning.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|date=May 1998|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/GENOCIDE.HTM|title=Democide versus Genocide: Which Is What?|website=Power Kills|access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref>

In "How Many Did Communist Regimes Murder?", Rummel wrote:
<blockquote>First, however, I should clarify the term democide. It means for governments what murder means for an individual under [[municipal law]]. It is the premeditated killing of a person in cold blood, or causing the death of a person through [[recklessness (law)|reckless and wanton disregard for their life]]. Thus, a government incarcerating people in a prison under such deadly conditions that they die in a few years is murder by the state—democide—as would parents letting a child die from malnutrition and exposure be murder. So would government forced labor that kills a person within months or a couple of years be murder. So would government created famines that then are ignored or knowingly aggravated by government action be murder of those who starve to death. And obviously, [[extrajudicial execution]]s, death by torture, government massacres, and all genocidal killing be murder. However, judicial executions for crimes that internationally would be considered capital offenses, such as for murder or treason (as long as it is clear that these are not fabricated for the purpose of executing the accused, as in communist show trials), are not democide. Nor is democide the killing of enemy soldiers in combat or of armed rebels, nor of noncombatants as a result of military action against military targets.<ref name="Rummel 1993">{{cite web|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|date=November 1993|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM|url-status=live|title=How Many Did Communist Regimes Murder?|website=Power Kills|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825013702/http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM|archive-date=25 August 2018|access-date=14 November 2020}}</ref></blockquote>

In his work and research, Rummel distinguished between [[Colonialism|colonial]], [[Democracy|democratic]], and [[authoritarian]] and [[totalitarian]] regimes.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tago|first1=Atsushi|last2=Wayman|first2=Frank|date=January 2010|title=Explaining the Onset of Mass Killing, 1949–87|journal=Journal of Peace Research|location=Thousand Oaks, California|publisher=SAGE Publications|volume=47|issue=1|pages=3–13|doi=10.1177/0022343309342944|issn=0022-3433|jstor=25654524|s2cid=145155872}}</ref> He defined totalitarianism as follows:
<blockquote>There is much confusion about what is meant by totalitarian in the literature, including the denial that such systems even exist. I define a totalitarian state as one with a system of government that is unlimited [[constitution]]ally or by countervailing powers in society (such as by a church, rural gentry, labor unions, or regional powers); is not held responsible to the public by periodic [[secret ballot|secret]] and competitive elections; and employs its unlimited power to control all aspects of society, including the family, religion, education, business, private property, and social relationships. Under [[Stalin]], the [[Soviet Union]] was thus totalitarian, as was [[Mao]]'s [[History of the People's Republic of China (1949–1976)|China]], [[Pol Pot]]'s [[Democratic Kampuchea|Cambodia]], [[Hitler]]'s [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], and [[U Ne Win]]'s [[Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma|Burma]]. Totalitarianism is then a political ideology for which a totalitarian government is the agency for realizing its ends. Thus, totalitarianism characterizes such ideologies as [[state socialism]] (as in Burma), [[Marxism-Leninism]] as in former [[East Germany]], and [[Nazism]]. Even revolutionary Moslem [[Iran]] since the [[Iranian Revolution|overthrow of the Shah in 1978–79]] has been totalitarian—here totalitarianism was married to [[Islamic fundamentalism|Moslem fundamentalism]]. In short, totalitarianism is the ideology of absolute power. State socialism, [[communism]], Nazism, [[fascism]], and Moslem fundamentalism have been some of its recent raiments. Totalitarian governments have been its agency. The state, with its international legal sovereignty and independence, has been its base. As will be pointed out, mortacracy is the result.<ref name="Rummel 1994b">{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=1994|chapter=Democide in Totalitarian States: Mortacracies and Megamurderers|editor-last1=Charny|editor-first1=Israel W.|editor-last2=Horowitz|editor-first2=Irving Louis|title=The Widening Circle of Genocide|pages=3–40|edition=1st|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781351294089-2|isbn=9781351294089}}</ref></blockquote>

== Estimates ==

In his estimates, [[Rudolph Rummel]] relied mostly on historical accounts, an approach that rarely provides accuracy compared with contemporary academic opinion. In the case of Mexican democide, Rummel wrote that while "these figures amount to little more than informed guesses", he thought "there is enough evidence to at least indict these authoritarian regimes for megamurder."<ref name="Mexican Democide">{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=2003|orig-date=1997|chapter-url=https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP11.HTM|chapter=Statistics of Mexican Democide: Estimates, Calculations, and Sources|title=Statistic of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900|edition=hardback|location=Charlottesville, Virginia; New Brunswick, New Jersey|publisher=Center for National Security Law, School of Law, University of Virginia; Transaction Publishers, Rutgers University|isbn=9783825840105|access-date=31 August 2021|via=Power Kills}}</ref> According to Rummel, his research showed that the death toll from democide is far greater than the death toll from war. After studying over 8,000 reports of government-caused deaths, Rummel estimated that there have been 262 million victims of democide in the last century. According to his figures, six times as many people have died from the actions of people working for governments than have died in battle. One of his main findings was that democracies have much less democide than authoritarian regimes.<ref name="Harff 2017"/> Rummel argued that there is a relation between political power and democide. Political mass murder grows increasingly common as political power becomes unconstrained. At the other end of the scale, where power is diffuse, checked, and balanced, [[political violence]] is a rarity. According to Rummel, "[t]he more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom."<ref name="The Freeman 1997">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/FREEMAN.INTERVIEW.HTM|title=An Exclusive Freeman Interview: Rudolph Rummel Talks About the Miracle of Liberty and Peace|magazine=The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty|issue=47|date=July 1997|access-date=2 November 2021|via=Power Kills}}</ref> Rummel argued that "concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth."<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Jacobs|editor-first1=Steven|editor-last2=Totten|editor-first2=Samuel|year=2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g26NmNNWK1QC|title=Pioneers of Genocide Studies|edition=1st hardback|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|publisher=Transaction Publishers|page=170|isbn=9780765801517}}</ref>

Rummel's estimates, especially about Communist democide, typically included a wide range and cannot be considered determinative.<ref name="Harff 1996"/><ref name="Harff 2017"/> Rummel calculated nearly 43 million deaths due to democide inside and outside the Soviet Union during Stalin's regime.<ref name="The Freeman 1997"/> This is much higher than an often quoted figure in the popular press of 20 million, or a 2010s scholarly figure of 9 million.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Snyder|first=Tymothy D.|date=27 January 2011|url=http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/01/27/hitler-vs-stalin-who-was-worse/|title=Hitler vs. Stalin: Who was worse?|magazine=The New York Review of Books|access-date=25 November 2021}}</ref> Rummel responded that the 20 million estimate is based on a figure from [[Robert Conquest]]'s ''[[The Great Terror (book)|The Great Terror]]'' and that Conquest's qualifier "almost certainly too low" is usually forgotten. For Rummell, Conquest's calculations excluded camp deaths before 1936 and after 1950, executions (1939–1953), the forced [[population transfer in the Soviet Union]] (1939–1953), the deportation within the Soviet Union of minorities (1941–1944), and those the Soviet [[Red Army]] and [[Cheka]] (the [[secret police]]) executed throughout Eastern Europe after their conquest during the 1944–1945 period. Moreover, the [[Holodomor]] that killed 5 million in 1932–1934 (according to Rummel) is also not included.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|date=26 April 2005|url=https://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/04/how-many-did-stalin-really-murder.html|url-status=dead|title=How Many Did Stalin Really Murder?|website=Freedom's Peace|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071026035903/https://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/04/how-many-did-stalin-really-murder.html|archive-date=26 October 2007|access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref> According to Rummel, forced labor, executions, and concentration camps were responsible for over one million deaths in the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] from 1948 to 1987.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=2003|orig-date=1997|chapter-url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM|chapter=Statistics of North Korean Democide: Estimates, Calculations, and Sources|url=https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE5.HTM|title=Statistic of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900|edition=hardback|location=Charlottesville, Virginia; New Brunswick, New Jersey|publisher=Center for National Security Law, School of Law, University of Virginia; Transaction Publishers, Rutgers University|isbn=9783825840105|access-date=2 December 2021|via=Power Kills}}</ref> After decades of research in the state archives, most scholars say that Stalin's regime killed between 6 and 9 million, which is considerably less than originally thought,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wheatcroft|first=Stephen G.|date=March 1999|url=http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/WCR-Secret_Police.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704065523/http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/WCR-Secret_Police.pdf |archive-date=2007-07-04 |url-status=live|title=Victims of Stalinism and the Soviet Secret Police: The Comparability and Reliability of the Archival Data. Not the Last Word|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|publisher=Routledge|volume=51|issue=2|pages=340–342|doi=10.1080/09668139999056|jstor=153614|quote=For decades, many historians counted Stalin' s victims in 'tens of millions', which was a figure supported by Solzhenitsyn. Since the collapse of the USSR, the lower estimates of the scale of the camps have been vindicated. The arguments about excess mortality are far more complex than normally believed. R. Conquest, ''The Great Terror: A Re-assessment'' (London, 1992) does not really get to grips with the new data and continues to present an exaggerated picture of the repression. The view of the 'revisionists' has been largely substantiated (J. Arch Getty & R. T. Manning (eds), ''Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives'' (Cambridge, 1993)). The popular press, even ''TLS'' and ''The Independent'', have contained erroneous journalistic articles that should not be cited in respectable academic articles.}}</ref> while Nazi Germany killed at least 11 million, which is in line with previous estimates.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Snyder|first=Timothy D.|date=10 March 2011|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/03/10/hitler-vs-stalin-who-killed-more/|title=Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Killed More?|magazine=The New York Review of Books|access-date=1 September 2021}}</ref>

== Application ==

=== Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes ===

==== Communist regimes ====

Rummel applied the concept of democide to [[Communist state|Communist regimes]].<ref name="Rummel 1993"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Fein|first=Helen|year=1993|chapter=Soviet and Communist Genocides and 'Democide'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4TaAAAAMAAJ|title=Genocide: A Sociological Perspective|volume=I|series=Contextual and Comparative Studies: Ideological Genocides|location=Thousand Oaks, California|publisher=SAGE Publications|pages=75–78|isbn=9780803988293}}</ref> In 1987, [[Rudolph Rummel]]'s book ''Death by Government'' Rummel estimated that 148 million were killed by [[Communist government]]s from 1917 to 1987. The list of Communist countries with more than 1 million estimated victims included: 
* [[History of the People's Republic of China|China]] at 76,702,000 (1949–1987), 
* the [[History of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] at 61,911,000 (1917–1987), 
* [[Democratic Kampuchea]] (1975–1979) at 2,035,000, 
* [[History of Vietnam since 1945|Vietnam]] (1945–1987) at 1,670,000, 
* [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]] (1945–1987) at 1,585,000, 
* [[North Korea]] (1948–1987) at 1,563,000,  
* [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] (1945–1987) at 1,072,000.<ref name="Rummel 1994a"/>

In 1993, Rummel wrote: "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. Consider that even in spite of the archival statistics and detailed reports of survivors, the best experts still disagree by over 40 percent on the total [[Death toll of the Holocaust|number of Jews killed by the Nazis]]. We cannot expect near this accuracy for the victims of communism. We can, however, get a probable [[Orders of magnitude (numbers)|order of magnitude]] and a relative approximation of these deaths within a most likely range."<ref name="Rummel 1993"/> In 1994, Rummel updated his estimates for Communist regimes at about 110 million people, foreign and domestic, killed by Communist democide from 1900 to 1987.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=1994|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM|title=Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900|edition=1st|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|publisher=Transaction Publishers|page=15, table 1.6|isbn=9781560009276|access-date=31 August 2021|via=Power Kills}}</ref> Due to additional information about [[Mao Zedong]]'s culpability in the [[Great Chinese Famine]] according to ''[[Mao: The Unknown Story]]'', a 2005 book authored by [[Jon Halliday]] and [[Jung Chang]], Rummel revised upward his total for Communist democide to about 148 million,<ref>{{cite web|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|date=20 November 2005|url=http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/11/reevaluating-chinas-democide-to-be.html|url-status=dead|title=Reevaluating China's Democide to be 73,000,000|website=Democratic Peace|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071101055924/http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/11/reevaluating-chinas-democide-to-be.html|archive-date=1 November 2007|access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|date=30 November 2005|url=http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/11/getting-my-reestimate-of-maos-democide.html|url-status=live|title=Getting My Reestimate of Mao's Democide Out|website=Freedom's Peace|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051220233526/http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/11/getting-my-reestimate-of-maos-democide.html|archive-date=20 December 2005|access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|date=1 December 2005|url=http://hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?1c1d76bb-290c-447b-82dd-e295ff0d3d59|url-status=dead|title=Stalin Exceeded Hitler in Monstrous Evil; Mao Beat Out Stalin|website=Hawaii Reporter|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090917001933/http://hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?1c1d76bb-290c-447b-82dd-e295ff0d3d59|archive-date=17 September 2009|access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref> using their estimate of 38 million famine deaths.<ref>{{cite book|last=Charny|first=Israel W.|year=2016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4iBsDAAAQBAJ|title=The Genocide Contagion: How We Commit and Confront Holocaust and Genocide|location=Lanham, Maryland|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=203|isbn=9781442254367|access-date=2 December 2021|via=Google Books}}</ref>

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>

==== Right-wing authoritarian, fascist, and feudal regimes ====

Estimates by Rummel for [[fascist]] or [[right-wing]] [[authoritarian]] regimes include: 
* [[Nazi Germany]] at 20,946,000 (1933–1945), 
* [[Nationalist government|Nationalist China]] (1925–1949) and later [[Martial law in Taiwan|Taiwan]] (1949–1987) at 10,214,000,  
* [[Empire of Japan]] at 5,964,000 (1900–1945). 
Estimates for other regime-types include: 
* the [[Ottoman Empire]] at 1,883,000 ([[Armenian genocide]] and [[Greek genocide]]), 
* [[Pakistan]] at 1,503,000 ([[1971 Bangladesh genocide]]), 
* [[Porfiriato]] in Mexico at somewhere between 600,000 and 3,000,000 and closer to 1,417,000 (1900–1920),<ref name="Mexican Democide"/>  
* the [[Russian Empire]] at 1,066,000 (1900–1917).<ref name="Rummel 1994a">{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=1994|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM|title=Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900|edition=1st|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=9781560009276|access-date=25 November 2021|via=Power Kills}}</ref>

Democide in Communist and Nationalist China, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union are characterized by Rummel as deka-megamurderers (128,168,000), while those in Cambodia, Japan, Pakistan, Poland, Turkey, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia are characterized as the lesser megamurderers (19,178,000), and cases in Mexico, North Korea, and feudal Russia are characterized as suspected megamurderers (4,145,000).<ref name="Rummel 1994a"/> Rummel wrote that "even though the Nazis hardly matched the democide of the Soviets and Communist Chinese", they "proportionally killed more".<ref>{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=1992|url=https://hawaii.edu/powerkills/NAZIS.CHAP1.HTM|title=Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=9781412821476|access-date=28 November 2021|via=Power Kills}}</ref>

=== Colonial regimes ===

In response to [[David Stannard]]'s figures about what he terms "the [[American Holocaust]]",<ref>{{cite book|last=Stannard|first=David|year=1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cXQ8DwAAQBAJ|title=American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World|edition=paperback|location=New York City, New York|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|page=95|isbn=9780195085570|access-date=2 December 2021|via=Google Books}}</ref> Rummel estimated that over the centuries of [[European colonization]] about 2 million to 15 million [[American indigenous people]] were victims of democide, excluding military battles and unintentional deaths in Rummel's definition. Rummel wrote that "[e]ven if these figures are remotely true, then this still make this subjugation of the Americas one of the bloodier, centuries long, democides in world history."<ref>{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=1994|chapter=Pre-Twentieth Century Democide|title=Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|publisher=Transaction Publishers|page=15|isbn=9781560009276}}</ref> 
* Rummel stated that his estimate for those killed by colonialism is 50,000,000 persons in the 20th century (this was revised upwards from his initial estimate of 815,000 dead).<ref>{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=1998|orig-date=1997|title=Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900|location=Münster, Germany|publisher=Lit Verlag|isbn=9783825840105}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Commentary: Exemplifying the Horror of European Colonization: Leopold's Congo |url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COMM.7.1.03.HTM |access-date=2023-03-19 |website=www.hawaii.edu}}</ref>

=== Democratic regimes ===

While democratic regimes are considered by Rummel to be the least likely to commit democide and engage in wars per the [[democratic peace theory]],<ref name="Harff 2017"/> Rummel wrote that 
* "democracies themselves are responsible for some of this democide. Detailed estimates have yet to be made, but preliminarily work suggests that some 2,000,000 foreigners have been killed in cold blood by democracies."<ref name="Rummel 1994b"/> 
[[Foreign policy]] and [[secret service]]s of democratic regimes "may also carry on subversive activities in other states, support deadly [[coup]]s, and actually encourage or support rebel or military forces that are involved in democidal activities. Such was done, for example, by the American [[CIA]] in [[1953 Iranian coup d'état|the 1952 coup]] against Iran Prime Minister [[Mossadeq]] and [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|the 1973 coup against Chile]]'s democratically elected President [[Salvador Allende|Allende]] by General [[Pinochet]]. Then there was the secret support given the military in [[Salvadoran Civil War|El Salvador]] and [[Guatemalan Civil War|Guatemala]] although they were slaughtering thousands of presumed [[communist]] supporters, and that of the [[Contras]] in their war against the [[Sandinista]] government of [[Nicaraguan Revolution|Nicaragua]] in spite of their atrocities. Particularly reprehensible was the covert support given to the Generals in Indonesia as [[Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66|they murdered hundreds of thousands of communists and others]] after [[30 September Movement|the alleged attempted communist coup in 1965]], and the continued secret support given to General [[Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan]] of Pakistan even as he was involved in [[1971 Bangladesh genocide|murdering over a million Bengalis in East Pakistan]] (now Bangladesh)."<ref name="Rummel 1994b"/>

According to Rummel, examples of democratic democide would include "those killed in indiscriminate or civilian targeted [[Strategic bombing during World War II|city bombing]], as of [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] and [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] in [[World War II]]. It would include the [[Philippine–American War#American atrocities|large scale massacres of Filipinos]] during the bloody [[History of the Philippines (1898–1946)|American colonization of the Philippines]] at the beginning of this century, deaths in [[Second Boer War concentration camps|British concentration camps]] in [[South Africa]] during the [[Second Boer War|Boer War]], civilian deaths due to [[starvation]] during the British [[Blockade of Germany (1914–1919)|blockade of Germany]] in and after World War I, the [[Boxer Rebellion|rape and murder of helpless Chinese in and around Peking]] in 1900, the [[Vietnam War#War crimes committed by US forces|atrocities committed by Americans]] in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]], the murder of helpless [[Demographics of Algeria|Algerians]] during the [[Algerian War]] by the [[France|French]], and the [[unnatural death]]s of German [[prisoners of war]] in [[German prisoners of war in France|French]] and [[German prisoners of war in the United States|American POW camps]] after World War II."<ref name="Rummel 1994b"/>

== See also ==
{{Main|Outline of genocide studies}}
{{col div|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Anti-communist mass killings]]
* [[Classicide]]
* [[Cultural genocide]]
* [[Environmental killings]]
* [[Ethnic cleansing]]
* [[Ethnic conflict]]
* [[Ethnocide]]
* [[Genocide of indigenous peoples]]
* [[Genocides in history]]
* [[List of ethnic cleansing campaigns]]
* [[List of genocides]]
* [[Policide]]
* [[Population cleansing]]
* [[Political cleansing of population]]
* [[Pogrom]]
* [[Lynching]]
=== Related topics ===
<!-- topics that aren't primarily concerned with mass killings or systematic population destruction -- but still relate to hate crimes, political violence, or specific types of interpersonal or state violence -->
* [[Communal violence]]
* [[Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism]]
* [[Crimes against humanity]]
* [[Crimes against humanity under communist regimes]]
* [[Criticism of communist party rule]]
* [[Cultural conflict]]
* [[Ethnic hatred]]
* [[Ethnic violence]]
* [[Extrajudicial killing]]
* [[Extrajudicial punishment]]
* [[Hate crime]]
* [[Hate group]]
* [[Hate media]]
* [[Hate speech]]
* [[Hate studies]]
* [[Nuclear warfare]]
* [[Police brutality]]
* [[Religious violence]]
* [[Sectarian violence]]
* [[Social cleansing]]
* [[Social murder]]
* [[Terrorism]]
* [[Vigilantism]]
* [[Violence against LGBT people]]
* [[War crime]]
{{colend}}

== References ==

{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Bibliography of genocide studies]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills Power Kills] – the website of Rudolph Rummel
{{Genocide topics}}
{{Discrimination}}

[[Category:Crimes]]
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:Murder]]
[[Category:Political neologisms]]
[[Category:Violence]]
[[Category:Killings by type]]
[[Category:Politicides]]
[[Category:Political and cultural purges]]