R. J. Rummel

R. J. Rummel, born on October twenty-first, nineteen thirty-two, was a distinguished American political scientist, statistician, and professor. He held teaching positions at renowned institutions such as Indiana University, Yale University, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Throughout his career, Rummel dedicated himself to the study of collective violence and war, aiming to contribute to their resolution and eventual elimination.

One of Rummel's significant contributions to the field was the coining of the term 'democide,' which refers to the murder of individuals by their own government. He contrasted this concept with genocide, highlighting atrocities committed by authoritarian regimes, including the genocide of indigenous peoples, the purges in Nazi Germany, and the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong. His research led him to conclude that democratic governments are less likely to commit such acts of violence against their citizens.

Rummel's estimates regarding government-induced deaths were staggering; he claimed that a total of two hundred twelve million people were killed by governments in the twentieth century, with one hundred forty-eight million attributed to Communist regimes from nineteen seventeen to nineteen eighty-seven. His methodology faced criticism, particularly regarding the high figures he presented compared to other scholars. In his final book, he raised his estimate to over two hundred seventy-two million innocent civilians murdered by their governments, suggesting that the actual number could exceed four hundred million.

His scholarly output included twenty-four books, with major works published between nineteen seventy-five and nineteen eighty-one, including 'Understanding Conflict and War.' Rummel spent the subsequent fifteen years refining his theories and testing them against empirical data, culminating in his influential work 'Power Kills' in nineteen ninety-seven. Other notable publications include 'Lethal Politics,' 'China's Bloody Century,' and 'Death by Government,' among others. His extensive research and findings are accessible through his website, where he shared extracts, figures, and tables from his works.