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Death by Government

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Sometimes it takes the insight of others to help me make better sense of what I already knew. I used to think war was the greatest cause of death and tragedy, but after reading R.J. Rummel's "Death by Government" I came to the recognition that governments killing their own citizens (what Rummel terms "democide") accounts for far more death than war has this century (by a factor of about four to one). War's visibility distorts perception. For example, I have long been aware of the six million Jews executed in the Holocaust because this was part of World War II. Yet even while I also knew the former Soviet Union had annihilated some fifty to sixty million of its own people, until I read Rummel I had not given the Soviet slaughter nearly the same significance as the Holocaust (though the number of Soviet citizens slaughtered was literally ten times the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis!). Rummel has been called the foremost "atrocitologist" of our time and "Death by Government" has been thoroughly researched with expertise. To complete the book this former Yale professor and Nobel Peace Prize nominee recorded over 8,000 estimates of genocide and mass murder from over a thousand sources. As a political science doctoral student, I have reviewed many books on the subject, and, for anyone interested in understanding genocide and government mass murder, "Death by Government" is the most comprehensive compilation of government atrocities I have ever encountered. It contains the pertinent numbers as well as the sad and grisly tales of unimaginable carnage. "Death by Government" is an illuminating book on some of the darkest elements of this century. Any course on these issues will be seriously enhanced by Rummel's very readable accounting of state sponsored homicide.

And with reason. There is none of the sacrifice, drama or nobility reported in battles. It's not about Thermopylae or Gettysburg.

This is an account of what humanity has done to itself--and continues to this day. It's a book on comparitive demonology. One almost gets the impression that a soldier ripping a baby from his mother's arms, tossing it in the air and catching it on the point of his bayonet is the rule, not the exception. Ditto for POW's captured by front line troops.

The author is a professor of Political Science who finds it amazing that his colleagues write texts on the purposes of government, yet fail to mention that (with the possible exception of the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide) instead of protecting citizens from "the savagery of the jungle" by rule of law, governments have and continue to be, THE greatest killers of all.

"Democide" is the word he coins to combine genocide (murdering because of membership in a hated race, ethnicity,or religion,) plus politicide ( murdering for political purposes, e.g; dissidents ) and mass murder (indiscriminate killing).

Democide is always committed by governments. It is as organized as taxation or road building. Discounting civilians accidentally killed in cross-fires, or even in the aerial bombardments of cities, this still leaves horrifying numbers.

Pre-Twentieth Century? An estimate of 169,198,000 human beings massacred. Since this includes the victims of Genghis Khan, Incas, Conquistadors, etc., There's an obscene tendency to see them as not quite human, not quite real due to the distance in time. So Tarmelane, the Turkish conqueror slaughtered 100,000 people outside of Delhi and he liked to make pyramids of human heads?--Who cares?--Just stuff in history books. . .

Is WW2 is close enough? We all know about the 6 million Jews, but did you know that constituted only aprox 13% of the victims of The Nazi Genocide State?

Overall, by genocide, euthanasia, killing of hostages, reprisal raids, starvation, forced labor camps and so forth the figure is anywhere from 15 to 31 million, most likely 21 million. Rummel admits he may be off somewhat in numbers, but certainly not as to the State's intentions. The Nazis still head the list when it comes to killing people in occupied territories, with the Imperial Japanese Military being second.

As to murdering one's own people, it's estimated some 35,236,000 for the Communist Chinese Anthill. The author notes that those who were shocked by the 1989 Beijing massacre of students, really shouldn't have been--it's the norm. But even that figure is topped by 54,800,000 victims of The Soviet Gulag State.

(Not counting an additional 5-7 million comprised of German POW's plus non-combatants deliberately murdered by The Red Army).

For sheer numbers, Stalin is our grand prize winner in brutality. In terms of percentage, however, the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot beats his insanity--they wiped out nearly one third of all Cambodians.

The chapter on The Vietnamese War State is most instructive, not just for the total toll of 1,670,000 victims but for the inferences Rummel draws: Before the U.S. entered the war, the Viet Minh were already as hardened a bunch of mass killers as the most disciplined SS units under Himmler. America had no idea what it was getting itself get into.

The Balkans are something else. Off the scale.

Required reading.

A shocking and sobering account of what happens when governments become too powerful. Rummel's corollary to Lord Acton's dictum is "Power kills; absolute power kills absolutely." His research is top notch. The writing is less so. 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. The lesson should be to promote poltical freedom wherever possible and limit the power of government. A powerful antidote to advocates of benevolent big brother.

Death by Government examines democides (definition below) of one million or more in the 20th century and before. The author, R. J. Rummel, shows that totalitarian regimes commit most of the democides. The underlying principle is that the less freedom people have, the greater the violence; the more freedom, the less violence. Rummel says, "The problem is power. The solution is democracy. The course of action is to foster freedom."

To understand the book, it is worthwhile to remember the following definitions:

DEMOCIDE: the intentional government killing of an unarmed person or people, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder. Note: "demos" = people. "cide" (caedere) = kill

GENOCIDE: among other things, the killing of people by a government because of their indelible group membership (race, ethnicity, religion, and language).

POLITICIDE: the murder of any person or people by a government because of their politics or for political purposes.

MASS MURDER: the indiscriminate killing of any person or people by a government.

HOLOCAUST: a thorough destruction, especially by fire. A type of genocide.

Although the book examines democides (definition above) of one million or more in the 20th century and before, the rest of this review will focus on the ten worst democides in the 20th century.

We all know the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews. Most American do NOT know that the ten worst totalitarian governments murdered more than 136 million OTHER people during the 20th century. The following is a list of the ten governments responsible for all those deaths.

(* = about 2 million MURDERS)

Soviet Gulag (1917-87)
-Executions during collectivization, etc.
61,911,000
* ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Communist Chinese State (1949-87)
-Executions of landlords, peasants, etc.
35,236,000
** ***** ***** *****

Nazi State (1933-45)
-6 mil Jews, 5 mil Poles, 10 mil others
20,946,000
***** *****

Chinese Nationalist (1928-49)
-Purges of communists, etc.
10,214,000
*****

Japan's military (1936-45)
-Nanking massacre, etc.
5,964,000
***

Khmer Rouge (1975-79)
-Khmer Rouge kill 1/3 of Cambodians
2,035,000
*

Turkey's Young Turks (1909-18)
-Slaughter of Turkey's Armenians
1,883,000
*

N. Vietnamese (1945-1987)
-S Vietnam's democide = 90,000.
1.670,000
*

Poland killed ethnic Germans
-8 million fled Poland (1945-1948)
1,585,000
*

West Pakistan (1958-87)
-E. Pakistan Hindus killed or expelled
1,503,000
*
TOTAL # Murdered = 142,000,000+

R. J. Rummel shows that over the last century, a person was almost twice as likely to be killed by their own government than by a force from outside their country. He also reveals that most of the killing of innocent citizens was done by communist regimes in their pursuit of the Utopian Communist State. A process which continues to this day in North Korea.

I was never taught that in school. I was taught that wars kill people and that governments protect people. The present multi-cultural teaching in this country tells us that all governmental systems and cultures are equally valid and that none of us has a right to condemn any system other than our own, no matter how evil that other system might appear from the outside. R. J. Rummel teaches us lessons about Government murder that give us a reference point from which we can judge all governments and cultures... if you kill innocent people then your system is bad. For example: Communism is bad because the policy requires killing anyone who disagrees with the state, and relies on terror to control its citizens. I wonder if any high school student would give those reasons to choose capitalism over communism?

He offers many other insights into how killing and terror become everyday tools for governing in some countries, and how a peaceful country can end up committing genocide against its own people.

This book provides a perspective that can not be found anywhere else!

My only complaint about this book is that he never seems to find a word strong enough to describe the horror created when a government kills large numbers of its own people. He immediately throws out "Genocide" in favor of "Democide", but that just doesn't seem harsh enough. My first thought was that if war is hell, then Big Government is death. So I guess "Death by Government" is as close as our language can get.

This harrowing book - eloquent through its numbers and not its writing - presents a telling picture of modern governments's assault on the citizens of their own countries. It clearly documents that more deaths in the 20th Century have been caused by the victim's own governments than by war. The not so surprising picture told by the stats is that the more repressive and totalitarian governments show a disproportionate number of murders of their own citizens, compared to freer and more open governments. What is hard for the mind to grasp is the huge number of people estimated to have been killed, directly or indirectly, by their own leaders during our lifetimes.

This is a very important book because it makes clear in numerical terms what we might often have felt but couldn't quantify. If anyone ever had any doubt that groups like Amnesty International were needed in this world, this book is the proof.

It is not posible to say how deeply this book has affected the way I think about my life, the politicians I vote for, and the political views I hold or condemn. In high school I saw a black and white documentary on the Holocaust. I was revolted by it! I was shocked at how cruel humans could be towards others. Having read Dr. Rummel's book and seeing how widespread and common government murder of civilians is was almost more than I could handle. Why these acts of government mass murder are not taught or even refered to in school or college is a mystery to me. I guess governments are embarassed by it? The knowledge that not only is the savagery documented in the book possible, but prevalent is very disturbing. There is no way I could say this book is a pleasure to read, but I couldn't hardly put it down til I was finished. I've told several friends about it and loaned it to my brother, who has loaned it to a friend of his. You'll read this book, you'll discuss, you'll loan it friends, so its definitely worth your money. I feel the lesson's I've learned reading this book have made those many millions of lost lives a little less wasted. Rummel has done a great service to those many victims by preventing their lives and deaths from being forgotten.

That paragon of liberal virtue, President Bartlet of TV's "The West Wing", likes to say "give me the numbers." Well, here they are. Rummel is a mainstream sociologist, not a so-called right-wing zealot. He has examined on a case-study basis the most notable examples of government violence against citizens in the 20th century from Africa to Europe to Asia, from Pol Pot to Idi Amin. His conclusion: government is the great killer of ordinary human beings, because of the lethal comination of a monopoly of force within a nation's borders along with the natural instinct for social engineering that people with authority have. Some startling facts: Stalin was much more proficient at murder than Hitler, despite the latter's more demonic reputation. The champion genocidal leader of the 20th century: Mao, who was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of his countrymen, and who still has a good reputation among many Western academics and is still officially revered by the Chinese regime. The total number of dead during the last century as totaled up by Rummel: 100 to 120 million. In other words an entire nation of victims. Rummel is a readable writer and a respected social scientist, so his is a valuable perspective. See also Robert Conquest's, "Reflections from a Ravaged Century."

The author makes a compelling case that we learn principles of government and policy in order to minimize the 4,635 innocent civilian deaths per day we've averaged during the 20th Century. How ironic that the U.S. is engaged in a debate over the advisability of civilian ownership of military-style firearms, which are misused for murder perhaps 200 times a year (of course always making front-page headlines), yet twenty times that number PER DAY die in countries where only the police and military are allowed to own politically significant firearms ("assault weapons"). Anyone involved in national or global policymaking should read this book, perhaps along with works by David Kopel (i.e. The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy), and the narratives of our own governments creation. Policymaking which is mostly symbolic in nature and ignores the long-term risks of genocide risks many lives due to the naive and tactically uninformed decisions made. Familiarity with this book might reduct the social mistakes and policy blunders which enable the likes of Adolph Hitler.

The author puts in perspective and lays it down in numbers to really show the impact of democide or genocide.
The numbers pre-20th century are about 130,000,000 and only the
20th century around an unbelievable 169,198,000. No one would have guessed such. Also, the Nazis are generally considered as the most repressive regime, but Stalin is clearly the most corrupt at 61,911,000.
The litany of torture and murder is definitely difficult to read, but important to be made known.

The greatest contribution of the author is his observation that
absolute power kills as obeserved through totalitarism. The more democratic the society, the less destruction. As he summarizes, "The way to end war and virtually eliminate democide appears to be through restricting and checking Power ie. through fostering democratic freedom"

Also it is intersting to note in democratic regimes, only 2,000,000 were killed, 159,000 of its own peoples? Still too many, but contrast that with totalitarian and communist regimes at 138,000,000; 103,000,000 of its own people. You draw your own conclusions.