Democide?
When we were learning the legal meaning of genocide,
a word came up that was new to my vocabulary: democide.
a word came up that was new to my vocabulary: democide.
According to Wikipedia, democide is "the murder of any person by their government, including genocide,
politicide, and mass murder. This term goes beyond genocide because it includes political values and
massacres. It is also always a domestic issue. The government, or officials of power, are killing people
within their jurisdiction. An example of democide is Stalin's killing of million of Soviets who opposed
communist belief. Stalin's practice may not have been a genocide, because it was purely political, but it
was definitely a democide. So how legit is this term? "Democide" was coined by American political
science professor, R J Rummel. When using the word "democide," Rummel was trying to broaden the
word genocide. He hoped that, when countries are/were committing democide, rather than genocide,
they should be persecuted, but perhaps in a different way.
politicide, and mass murder. This term goes beyond genocide because it includes political values and
massacres. It is also always a domestic issue. The government, or officials of power, are killing people
within their jurisdiction. An example of democide is Stalin's killing of million of Soviets who opposed
communist belief. Stalin's practice may not have been a genocide, because it was purely political, but it
was definitely a democide. So how legit is this term? "Democide" was coined by American political
science professor, R J Rummel. When using the word "democide," Rummel was trying to broaden the
word genocide. He hoped that, when countries are/were committing democide, rather than genocide,
they should be persecuted, but perhaps in a different way.
Today, North Korea is a government guilty of democide. They kill anyone who opposes their leader,
Kim Jong Un.
Kim Jong Un.
According to the creator of the term: "democide" means the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command. This is an interesting term, as it could describe a number of concepts we've studied this year. I first thought of police brutality when I read "unarmed or disarmed person": many case studies from last semester involved a person being killed by polices, representatives of the American government, with impunity. The word also encompasses genocidal acts we've learned about this semester. Essentially, "democide" is a less commonly used, broader term meant to include all acts of killing committed by a government to its people.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very important term as genocide covers a lot but it mainly focuses on people connected by race or religion and isn't very specific in terms of politics. For this reason, democide is important to have defined as it is about politics and it is a domestic issue and not international over borders. However, I think this makes it hard to stop because if the government that is carrying out political murders, it is hard for someone else within the country to step up and stop it.
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