Democide is death by government and was the number one cause of death worldwide in the 20th Century. Political scientist R. J. Rummel revived and redefined the term democide as:
The murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.
Rummel explicitly excludes battle deaths in his definition. His research concluded that the death toll from democide is far greater than the death toll from war. Six times as many people have died at the hands of people working for governments than have died in battle. He 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.
The more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom. Concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth. Power kills, absolute Power kills absolutely.
Democide was responsible for the death of 262,000,000 people worldwide during the 20th Century. On average governments killed 2,620,000 people per year, 218,333 per month, or 7,178 per day.
Just to give perspective on this incredible murder by government, if all these bodies were laid head to toe, with the average height being 5', then they would circle the earth ten times. Also, this democide murdered 6 times more people than died in combat in all the foreign and internal wars of the century. Finally, given popular estimates of the dead in a major nuclear war, this total democide is as though such a war did occur, but with its dead spread over a century.
Further reading…
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