Power corrupts, and great power kills.
When I saw "Schindler's List", I was deeply moved. I asked Mike B. what can we do to prevent such genocide from happening again. Mike suggested raising my children right and treating my neighbor justly. I do try to live up to that.
I got excited when I came across some research that might drastically reduce wars AND genocides and other kinds of internal governmentally-approved mass execution.
A CIA researcher discovered that "being a democracy" has a very strong correlation with "not going to war with a democracy" and with "not killing huge numbers of its own citizens."
That claim of his is somewhat in dispute, according to the wikipedia entry on "the democratic peace." I also found a researcher who said that the correlation is even higher if you replace "being a democracy" with something else. More on that another time.
But in any case, that CIA researcher uncovered a crucial fact. Governments of the 20th century were wildly bloodthirsty. There were even some governments that issued quotas to murder a certain number of citizens per period of time, according to his research.
20th Century Democide
David Oakey
posted by David Oakey @ 6:45 AM
3 Comments:
What was the History of Athens you just read? Was it an ancient Athenian who wrote it?
Without seeing the passage you refer to in context, I can only guess. Could the two accounts be reconciled if the ancient Athenians attacks were on non-democratic neighbors?
Alternatively, can we rate Athens on a scale of "how much democracy it had?" I have a vague impression that Athens had a high rate of disenfranchised residents. May I assume that women, slaves, the landless, and youth could not vote?
David
I found a page that explains more about the idea of the democratic peace, as some have called it.
(You'll have to remove the spaces to use the URL below.)
www. hawaii. edu/powerkills/MIRACLE.HTM
I found a Rummel web page that seems to come close to addressing the topic.
(you will have to removethe spaces to use the URL below)
"What is The Democratic Peace?"
http:
//www.
hawaii.edu/powerkills/DP.IS_WHAT.HTM
Here is the most relevant snippet:
"Research on pre-20th Century war within the war version of the democratic peace, however, has necessarily required a relaxation of the definition of democracy to mean periodic, competitive elections, that the powerful can be so kicked out of power, and that a body of citizens hold equal rights regardless of class or status (see, for example, the research by the historian Spencer R. Weart, Never At War, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998). Such research by Weart and others still found that as far back in history as classical Greece, democracies rarely, if at all (Weart concludes, "not at all,") made war on each other. "
I found a webpage by the same author that acknowledges your points. You can decide for yourself if it addresses or dismisses your points.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/PK.APPEN1.1.HTM
(Q & A on democracies ont making war on each other)
and
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/DP.CHART.V19.JPG
(Democratic Oeace Chart)
Here's some quotes from the chart:
--------
All alleged exceptions to the "No wars between democracies" proposition and why they are in fact not exceptions
Athens vs. various democratic city-states (427 B.C. - 369 B.C. No battles; other not perceived as a democracy by Athens; not autonomous; vague history)
Same document claims:
Democracies do not make war on each other
Democracies commit the least democide (murder by government)
Democracies have no famines
Same document claims
International Wars 1816-2005
Belligerents Wars*
democracies vs. democracies 0
democracies vs. nondemocracies 166
nodemocracies vs. nondemocracies 205
*At least 1000 killed
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