ABSTRACT
This chapter explores four contributions of PoliSci and IR frameworks: empirical studies of genocide, the changing nature of war, the putative link between democracy and peace, and the role of ethical norms and moral entrepreneurs in constructing “prohibition regimes” worldwide, including the regime against genocide. Rummel's book Death by Government coined the term “democide” to describe “government mass murder” – including but not limited to genocide as defined in the UN Convention. Rummel discerned an underlying “Power Principle” in this human catastrophe, namely, that “Power kills; absolute Power kills absolutely”: The more power a government has, the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. War in “primitive” societies ranges from the brutal and destructive to the largely demonstrative and symbolic (as among many native nations of North America).
