Power Kills: Democracy as a Method of Nonviolence [Hardcover]

R. J. Rummel (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1560002972 | ISBN-13: 978-1560002970 | Publication Date: January 1, 1997

This volume, newly published in paperback, is part of a comprehensive effort by R. J. Rummel to understand and place in historical perspective the entire subject of genocide and mass murder, or what he calls democide. It is the fifth in a series of volumes in which he offers a detailed analysis of the 120,000,000 people killed 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 it, "The solution...is to foster democratic freedom and to democratie coercive power and force. That is, mass killing and mass murder carried out by government is a result of indiscriminate, irresponsible Power at the center." Rummel observes that well-established democracies do not make war on and rarely commit lesser violence against each other. The more democratic two nations are, the less likely is war or smaller-scale violence between them. The more democratic a nation is, the less severe its overall foreign violence, the less likely it will have domestic collective violence, and the less its democide. Rummel argues that the evidence supports overwhelmingly the most important fact of our time: democracy is a method of nonviolence.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The result of four decades of truly brilliant intellectual inquiryà. No scholar has done more in this century to promote understanding about the true causes of internal and external State violenceà."

—Robert F. Turner, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia "Rummel mobilies every resource (logical and empirical), tracks down virtually every related study, and defends his thesis with the energy of a knight of the round table and the hand of a master scholar."

—Jack Vincent, Borah Professor of Political Science, University of Idaho  

About the Author

R. J. Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He is the author of over one hundred scholarly articles and two doen books, including Power Kills, China’s Bloody Century, and The Miracle That Is Freedom.  In addition, he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prie and been the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Conflict Processes Section of the American Political Science Association and the International Association of Genocide Scholars’ Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to the Field of Genocide and Democide Studies and Prevention.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560002972
• ISBN-13: 978-1560002970
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

R.J. Rummel is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science. He has published twenty-four nonfiction books (one that received an award for being among the most referenced), six novels, and about 100 peer-reviewed professional articles; has received the Susan Strange Award of the International Studies Association in 1999 for having intellectually most challenged the field; and in 2003 was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Conflict Processes Section, American Political Science Association. He has been frequently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

See also "about R.J. Rummel www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/PERSONAL.HTM, or his curriculum vita at www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/LONGVITA.HTM. His website is at www.hawaii.edu/powerkills, his daily blog is at http://democraticpeace.wordpress.com/

Many of his books are downloadable free in pdf at: www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NH.HTM