ABSTRACT
In a provocative article immediately preceding ours, Victor Le Vine raises important issues concerning the relationship(s) between political violence and democracy. For those hoping for the persistence of the new ‘third wave’ democracies that emerged over the last few decades, Le Vine’s commentary goes to the heart of the matter. After investigating the arguments of Jefferson and others about the potentially beneficial effects of violence in promoting the formation of democracies and in stimulating progressive social change, Le Vine concludes: ‘democracies in general do not thrive on a diet of political violence, however heroic or well-intended. Political violence at democratic inceptions does not necessarily conduce to subsequent civil peace, nor is the democratic “tree of liberty” necessarily “refreshed” by periodic effusions of the blood of victims of political violence, be they
“tyrants” or “patriots.” To the contrary ...’ Repeated expressions of political violence, Le Vine goes on, may lead to the appearance of a culture of political violence and eventually the breakdown of democratic rule itself.
