Democide, or populicide, refers to "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command". The term, coined by Holocaust historian and statistics expert R. J. Rummel in his book Death by Government, has been described by renowned Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer as a better term than genocide to refer to certain types of mass killing. According to Rummel, this definition covers a wide range of deaths, including forced labor and concentration camp victims, extrajudicial summary kill
Democide, or populicide, refers to "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command". The term, coined by Holocaust historian and statistics expert R. J. Rummel in his book Death by Government, has been described by renowned Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer as a better term than genocide to refer to certain types of mass killing. According to Rummel, this definition covers a wide range of deaths, including forced labor and concentration camp victims, extrajudicial summary killings, and mass deaths due to governmental acts of criminal omission and neglect, such as in deliberate famines like the Holodomor, as well as killings by de facto governments, for example, killings during a civil war. This definition covers any murder of any number of persons by any government.
Rummel created democide as an extended term to include forms of government murder not covered by genocide. According to Rummel, democide surpassed war as the leading cause of non-natural death in the 20th century.
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