SAQ - Violence in the 20th century

Read the following excerpt and answer the questions using the ACE method.

(Answer, Cite with evidence, Explain with examples)

Source 1

“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. The more constrained the power of governments, the more power is diffused, checked, and balanced, the less it will aggress on others and commit mass violence. At the extremes of power, totalitarian governments slaughter their people by the tens of millions. In contrast, many democracies can barely bring themselves to execute even serial murderers.”

Rudolph Rummel, United States political scientist, Death by Government, 1994

Question 1

Short answer

Identify ONE historical example of mass violence that was committed by a totalitarian state in the twentieth century that would support Rummel’s argument in the passage.

Question 2

Short answer

Explain ONE historical example of a democratic state committing mass violence that would challenge Rummel’s argument regarding democracies and mass violence.

Question 3

Short answer

Explain ONE development in the late twentieth century that likely shaped Rummel’s view of the relationship between democracy and mass violence

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