ABSTRACT
This article is concerned with the relationship between democracy and violence. The first section argues that the way in which that relationship is characterized depends on how violence is defined. Some definitions extend the ordinary understanding of violence as an act of direct physical coercion. Variously, they draw attention to indirect forms of violence that are the result of failures to act by governments, and to institutional and structural violence embedded in the normal functioning of ‘peace-loving’ democracies. This, together with liberal democrats’ occasional readiness to resort to violence of a direct and physical kind, counters the idea that violence is inherently anathema to democracy. In this view violence and democracy may go hand in hand. The second section explores one way in which democracy and violence do seem to be mutually exclusive. When democracy appears to be threatened by violence and that threat is portrayed as exceptional, democratic governments may show an alarming readiness to resort to violence and to jettison democratic principles and values in proportion to the perceived threat.
