Related Links:

Genocides and Politicides Since 1945

Features of Genocides and Politicides Since 1945

Overview: Approaches to Studying Genocide

Genocides Share Nine Common Features

Overview: Rape and Genocide

Scholars estimate that more people have been killed in episodes of state repression during the latter half of the twentieth century than in all wars of that period combined. While the number killed in wars is estimated to be around 3.35 million people in international wars and 3.13 million in colonial and civil wars, estimates run upward of 16 million people killed in state sponsored killings.

Researchers Barbara Harff and Ted Robert Gurr examine episodes of state sponsored mass murders since World War II. Their goal is to create a data set that allows researchers to compare and better understand these types of mass murders.

They identify two major types of state sponsored mass murder: genocides and politicides.

What Are Genocides and Politicides and How Are They Different?

Harff and Gurr focus on mass murders carried out by states (rather than, say, by non-state actors). What distinguishes the two major types of mass murder policies is the way that the state identifies the victims.

• Genocides: victims are identified based on their ethnic, racial, national or religious identities. Victims may not necessarily think of themselves in these terms. However, as a matter of identifying targets for murder, the state does.
• Politicides: victims are identified primarily in terms of their political opposition to the regime and dominant groups or in terms of their position within the society (for example, peasants, intellectuals, etc).

What these two types of murderous state actions have in common is that they seek to destroy a substantial portion of the identified victim group or groups (often, more than one group is targeted).

These can shade off into each other. For example, a state may carry out mass murders as a way to repress opponents to the regime. It may turn out that members of a particular ethnic group are disproportionately members of an opposition group. In this case, what is primarily a political repression can shade off into a genocidal campaign. This is the case in instances such as the Indonesian campaign against the East Timorese and Ugandan politicides/genocides carried out in the 1970s and 1980s.

How Is the Definition of Genocides and Politicides Different than the Genocide Convention?

Harff and Gurr's definition of genocide is slightly different than the definition contained in the UN Genocide Convention.

• The murderous actions are carried out by a state or regime. The Genocide Convention makes no mention of states.
• The Genocide Convention only addresses exterminatory campaigns against racial, ethnic, national and religious groups. There is no mention of the extermination of political groups.
• Harff and Gurr include “killing members of a group” and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or part” as criteria for identifying cases. The Genocide convention also includes “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” as part of the definition. Harff and Gurr do not include this criteria.

How Do We Identify an Episode of Genocide or Politicide?

Harff and Gurr identify instances of state sponsored mass murder in different ways than some other researchers. Rather than examine particular episodes of genocide or politicide and then cull out similarities and differences, they create a set of criteria first and then look to see what episodes fit those criteria. If an episode of state sponsored mass murder meets the criteria, then they count it as an episode of either genocide or politicide.

In order to count as a genocide or a politicide, the state sponsored mass murder must meet the following criteria:

• Many non-combatants: this includes groups of people who are killed merely on the suspicion that they support anti-state rebels or policies. It does not include instances where only rebels or combatants were the target of state action.

• High death toll: in the thousands or more (except in the case of the Ache Indians in Paraguay where the total population was very small),

• Campaign is protracted: >=6 months.

Also, Harff and Gurr look only at state sponsored mass murder after World War II up until 1987. Their analysis does not include the genocides or politicides that have occurred before or after that time.

Types of Genocides and Politicides

Once Harff and Gurr identified all instances of state sponsored mass murder that fit the above criteria, they compared the different episodes and created a series of different types that share certain characteristics. They identify two types of genocide and four types of politicide.

Types of Genocide

In both types of genocide the target groups are defined by their race, ethnicity, nationality or religion.

Hegemonial genocide: the racial, ethnic, national or religious groups are being forced to submit to the authority of the state. This may happen when a new state is formed or when a state expands. Examples of this type of genocide include actions of the USSR against various ethnic groups of the North Caucasus region between 1943 and 1957 and the campaign of the People's Republic of China against Tibetan nationalists in 1959.

Xenophobic genocide: Murder campaigns are part of a state policy of national protection or social purification where victims are defined as alien or threatening. Examples of this kind of genocidal campaign between 1945 and 1988 include the campaigns against the Ache Indians in Paraguay (1962-72), against the Ibo in Nigeria in 1966 and against Muslims in the border region of Burma in 1978.

Politicides

Except in the last case (which is something of a hybrid type), politicides target groups other than racial, ethnic, national or religious groups.

Retributive politicide: Mass murders target groups that formerly held power or were dominant within the state. Members of the group are targeted out of resentment for past privileges or abuses. Hutu violence against the former Tutsi ruling class in 1963-64 is an example of this type of politicide.

Repressive politicide: Mass murder targets groups engaged in some sort of oppositional activity against the state. This may include members of political parties, factions or movements. This is the most common type of politicide following World War II.

Revolutionary politicide: Mass murder targets the political enemies of a state that is pursuing revolutionary ideologies. The politicide that occurred as a result of Mao's Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1975) is an example.

Repressive/Hegemonial politicide: The victim group is an ethnically or nationally distinct group, but is targeted because of some form of oppositional activity (rather than because of their ethnicity or nationality per se). So, it is considered politicide since the policy of the state is to repress opposition to the state, but because the opposition group (or groups) share some communal trait, it has genocidal characteristics. Pakistan's violence directed toward Bengali nationalists in 1971 is an example of this type.

Bottom Line

The goal of genocide is to destroy a racial, ethnic, national or religious group. However, genocide is not the only form of violent state sponsored murder. States may target other types of groups, like political groups or social classes, for murder as well. Researchers Barbara Harff and Ted Robert Gurr call these latter types of mass murders politicides.

Other Keytexts from this source

Features of Genocides and Politicides Since 1945

Genocides and Politicides Since 1945