Chapter 11 Flashcards
Of all of the acts of collective political violence, what is the worst act?
> Genocide (the most lethal form as well)
With respect to genocide, what was the 20th century called? What was the reasoning for the name?
> been referred to as an “Age of Total War”
> estimates suggest that genocide killed almost four times as many people as all the wars, revolutions, and civil wars combined during that century.
How many refugees were there as a result of acts of genocide in 1995? How many people on earth did this figure represent?
> In 1995, for example, there were approximately 27 million refugees worldwide, which represented approximately 1 out of every 280 people on earth.
How has the term genocide been misused?
> the word has been applied to such widely disparate and inappropriate subjects such as integration, sterilization, bisexuality, dieting, suburbanization, hysterectomies, urban sprawl, and family planning
Genocide is such a powerful and symbolic word that people have come to rely on it when trying to do what?
> when trying to strongly condemn or call attention to some situation or policy.
What does the term genocide symbolize?
> It has come to symbolize the worst possible type of destructive violence and has become the go-to word when someone or some group wants to claim that some action, event, or policy is absolutely wrong or evil.
Aside from misuse, what is another definitional difficulty?
(what is it hard to diffrentiate from)
> it is sometimes hard to distinguish between genocide and related types of crimes, such as human rights violations and other war crimes.
> A great deal of overlap exists between these crimes as they are defined in international law.
Why are genocides hard to distinguish from war crimes?
> Genocide typically happens during the middle of an armed conflict, such as a civil war, and it is sometimes hard to distinguish between massacres that are considered war crimes
Aside from misuse or confusing genocide with another term, what is another definitional difficulty?
> politicians, social commentators, and even scholars use the term differently and apply the definition selectively, depending on the nature and politics of the situation.
Historically, U.S. political leaders have been reluctant to employ the term genocide when our allies were perpetrating it because of what concerns?
> because of concerns about pressures to intervene or because of Cold War politics.
What are two historical examples of countries being reluctant in employing the term genocide?
> the Chinese invasion of Tibet on October 7, 1950.
-China argued that it was simply reclaiming a past province and liberating Tibet (not true)
> when the Indonesian military invaded East Timor in 1975.
- East Timor gaining independence but the Indonesian government sent in the army to occupy and take over the former Portuguese colony.
- the population decreased by around 12% due to this genocide
-
Although the act of genocide is as old as human civilization, the term genocide is relatively new. Who coined the term?
> Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in his book, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe
> He coined the word genocide from the Greek genos, which means race or tribe, and the Latin cide, which translates as killing.16 The term genocide therefore refers to the killing of a race or tribe.
How is genocide different than other forms of violence?
> Genocide, in short, is about destroying populations, and this is what separates it from many other types of large-scale violence.
Aside from coining the word genocide, what was the other main contribution of Lemkin?
> was also instrumental in helping to provide the impetus for the international community to outlaw this crime.
On what date did the UN approve the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide?
> December 9th 1948
How does article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide define genocide?
> Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
What are good things to note about the definition of genocide as provided by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide? What is something that is still problematic for this definition?
1) First, it makes it clear that genocide is about destroying populations.
2) genocide includes a number of different behaviors, not only mass murder.
> intent remains a potentially problematic aspect of the UN definition of genocide.
When can a crime still be considered genocide?
> Importantly, genocide can be considered to have taken place even if the goal was not to kill every single member of that group. Destroying part of a specific population can still be genocide
> but what defines a “part”
What kind of policy imposed residential schools? As a result, what kind of genocide was this?
> a policy of forced assimilation
> This particular type of genocide has sometimes been defined as cultural genocide or as ethnocide.
What kind of intent does genocide require as per the genocide convention:
> the Genocide Convention specified a level of intent that is referred to as specific intent, special intent (dolus specialis), or even genocidal intent.2
What group is excluded from the UN definition of genocide? What are two examples that demonstrate how this exclusion is problematic?
> Political parties, for example, are a type of group excluded from the official UN definition of genocide because it was suggested that they did not have the same permanence and stability as the listed groups.
> The mass murders in Indonesia in 1965 + Indonesian violence with the 1988 Iraqi government’s attacks against Iraq’s Kurdish population.
Historically perpetrators of genocide include:
B,A, I, G, R, M
> include the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians, Israelites, Greeks, Romans, and Mongols
What is Vahakn Dadrian’s definition of genocide?
> The successful attempt by a dominant group, vested with formal authority and/or with preponderant access to the overall resources of power, to reduce by coercion or lethal violence the number of a minority group whose ultimate extermination is held desirable and useful and whose respective vulnerability is a major factor contributing to the decision of genocide
What is Robert Melson’s definition of genocide?
> A public policy mainly carried out by the state, whose intent is the destruction in whole or in part of a social collectivity or category, usually a communal group, a class, or a political faction
What is Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn’s definition of genocide?
> A form of one-sided killing in which a state or authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator
What is Helen Fein’s definition of genocide?
> Sustained purposeful action by a perpetrator to physically destroy a collective directly or indirectly, through interdiction of the biological and social reproduction of group members, sustained regardless of the surrender or lack of threat offered by the victim.
What is Israel Charny’s definition of violence?
> The mass killing of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under conditions of the essential defenselessness and helplessness of the victims
What is Irving Louis Horowitz’s definition of violence?
> A structural and systematic destruction of innocent people by a state bureaucratic apparatus
One of the best-known historical examples of genocide involves what groups?
Not the nazis - this genocide took place in medieval times.
> involves the destruction of the Cathars of southern France during the early 13th century.
> Cathars believed that the world was evil and that people should live a frugal and ascetic life to avoid being corrupted by the world.
> In 1204, Pope Innocent III initiated a crusade against them to suppress their threat to the dominance of the church.
> the Albigensian Crusade was led by nobles from the north of France who saw an opportunity for land and enrichment in addition to serving their faith and the church. No attempt was made to distinguish the Cathars from others, so this crusade, which was actually genocide, virtually obliterated the entire population of southern France.
The ancient world is full of similar kinds of genocidal practices and policies across the globe. The United States has also had experience with genocide. Perhaps the most obvious example concerns what group?
> the policies and practices against various American Indian tribes.
The first recognized genocide of the 20th century was that of what?
> was that of the Hereros and Nama in what was then known as German South-West Africa, present-day Namibia.
> In 1904, the Hereros and then the Nama rose in revolt against German rule because they were increasingly losing their lands, sinking into insurmountable debt, and suffering from the racist policies of the German administration.
> In January of that year, the Hereros attacked German farms, villages, and military outposts and forts. The Germans responded with heavy-handed efficiency and brought in more troops to wage a campaign of utter destruction. They killed all the men, women, and children they were able to find.
The next major genocide of the 20th century occurred in what country?
* After the Hereos in Germany *
> occurred in Turkey, when the Armenian population was targeted for destruction by the Turkish government.
> Minority groups, such as the Armenians, simply did not fit into their vision of a homogenous and modern Turkish state. These sentiments were brought to a head when Turkey entered World War I in 1914 on the side of Germany and Austria.
> As Turkey’s wartime situation deteriorated, the government, hateful and suspicious of the Armenian population in its midst, planned and then implemented a genocide
Do the turkish people take accountability for their cultural genocide? Did anyone speak up about it?
> To this day, the Turkish government continues to deny the Armenian genocide.
> in December 2005, the Turkish government put its country’s best-known novelist, Orhan Pamuk, on trial after he asserted that his country had killed 1 million Armenians in an interview with a Swedish newspaper.
> To recognize the Armenian genocide, in 2007, Adam Schiff, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, introduced HR 106 titled Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution.
Perhaps the best-known and deadliest of 20th-century genocides involved what groups?
> involved the Nazi attempt to eliminate the Jews of occupied Europe.
> Even though there have been more than 40 examples of genocide since 1945, it is the Holocaust that remains the preeminent example of genocide.
How did the holocaust occur?
> the Nazis and their supporters had long scapegoated the Jews for many of Germany’s problems.
> After taking power in 1933, the Nazis began a multiyear process of marginalizing the Jews legally, economically, politically, and socially in order to make them more vulnerable to further persecution.
> These legalistic maneuvers were punctuated by periodic outbursts of violence against Germany’s Jewish population, such as the infamous Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), on November 9, 1938.
What was the night of broken glass?
> Occured after a Jewish man shot and killed a Nazi diplomatic aide in Paris, the Nazis orchestrated a series of attacks over the next few days that resulted in an estimated 7,500 Jewish businesses being looted, over 1,000 synagogues destroyed, nearly 100 murders, and some 30,000 Jews subsequently sent to concentration camps.
When did Mass Killings occur in the holocaust?
> Mass killings did not occur until after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
> Special extermination squads known as Einsatzgruppen followed behind the German army and were tasked to conduct mass shootings - but was not effective.
> To increase the efficiency of the killing process and to spare their men, the Nazi government created a number of death camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor, which employed gas chambers to kill millions of Jews and others.
political scientist R. J. Rummel calculated that the Nazis killed approximately how many people and by what means? Of this figure, how many were killed by genocide alone?
> killed approximately 21 million people through genocide, killing hostages, reprisals, forced labor, euthanasia, starvation, exposure, experiments, and various other means in the concentration and death camps.
> Of these, over 16 million were victims of genocide alone
>
- 28 million were killed due to war also.
Another well-known example of genocide occurred during the 1970s- what was it?
Hint: wasn’t really direct, involved the US.
> occurred during the 1970s, when the U.S. war in Vietnam spilled over its borders and helped destabilize the government of Cambodia. (spillage of bombings which destroyed villiages in cambodia)
> This helped the Khmer Rouge or the Red Khmers, a Cambodian communist group, win popular support and brought them many new recruits.
In 1975, the Khmer Rouge was able to overthrow the Cambodian government and establish Democratic Kampuchea- was it really democratic? What does this genocide rank in terms of lethality?
> was anything but democratic.
> The Khmer Rouge had decided it wanted to create a utopian communist Khmer nation
> Over a four-year period, the Khmer Rouge systematically starved, beat, worked to death, tortured, and murdered between 1 and 2 million of its own citizens. (who were from the previous goverment or did not fit in.
> Since the total population of Cambodia was only around 8 million, this genocide ranks as one of the most lethal of the 20th century in terms of the proportion of the population killed
What genocide occurred in Rwanada?
> Rwanda is home to two major ethnic groups: the Tutsi and the Hutu.
> A minority, the Tutsi, have historically been seen as a privileged group compared with the more numerous Hutu.
> In the early 1990s, Rwanda was in the midst of a civil war between the Hutu-dominated government of President Juvenal Habyarimana and the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which had invaded from neighboring Uganda in 1990
> once the president was assassinated, military and police forces and militias began killing moderate Hutus as well as every Tutsi they found (Hutu extremists)
What other genocides occured in the 19th century?
> Stalin’s Great Terror, which wracked the Soviet Union in the 1930s and which resulted in the death of around 20 million people,
> the extermination of various Indigenous peoples in Central and South America,
> and Bosnia’s experience with ethnic cleansing after Yugoslavia fell apart at the end of the cold war.
What genocides occured in Sudan in the 21st century?
> the genocide in the Darfur region of the Sudan.
> Beginning in 2003, some tribes launched attacks on government installations to protest their economic and political status within Sudan.
> In response, the Sudanese government embarked on a genocidal campaign against a number of tribes in the Darfur region
What genocides have occured in Iraq in the 21st century?
> the movement known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, often referred to by their acronym of ISIL or ISIS, began attacking members of a Kurdish minority group known as the Yazidis in 2014.
> Because they practice a different faith than Islam, ISIL defined them as “devil worshippers” and targeted their population for destruction.
> The violence involved not only attacks on Yazidi villages but also mass executions, sexual assault, and sexual slavery.
And finally, the UN released a report in 2018 accusing what country of perpetrating genocide?
> accusing Myanmar of perpetrating genocide against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group within the Buddhist majority country.
> The report detailed a systematic campaign against this population that included mass murder, imprisonment, gang rapes, sexual slavery, deportation, and various other violations.
> As of the writing, an estimated 25,000 Rohingya have been killed and another 75,000 forced to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.
According to sociologist Helen Fein, genocide has increased or decreased in modern times?
> genocide has unfortunately tripled and has become more the norm than the exception.7
historian Eric Weitz suggests that, beginning with the Armenian genocide of the early 20th century, genocides have become more what?
> genocides have become more extensive, more systematic, and more thorough.”
What do the arguments about modern genocide from Fein and Weitz suggest?
> These arguments usually suggest that genocide has been enabled by the processes of modernity, which have served to separate the use of violence and power from ethics and morality.
William Rubinstein contends that genocide has decreased or increased? As a result, do we live in an age of genocide?
> that genocide has actually decreased in the modern era and was much more common in earlier eras.
> we do not live in an age of ‘genocide’—but it has occurred rather unpredictably and haphazardly.”
Rubinstein’s argument is aligned with the work of Norbert Elias, who contends that what process has made the modern world much less violent?
> . contends that a civilizing process has made the modern world much less violent.
What does Steven Pinker argue about the world and violence?
> psychologist Steven Pinker, who argued that the world today is safer and less violent than in the past.
What kind of attempts are genocides?
> genocides are rational attempts to achieve a specific goal
> usually have a perverted logic that motivates the killing. (logic that is flawed)
What 4 factors primarily influence the attempt of genocide?
VNRI, HPOIAP, ADFR, AAHOOEI
> various nationalistic and racial ideologies,
historic perceptions of injustice and persecution,
a desire for revenge,
and a host of other emotional issues.
Are genocides objective?
> genocides are not completely objective and rational because old hatreds and prejudices often guide the thinking processes of political, social, and religious leaders who are intent on achieving some goal.
How does the mass media typically portray a genocide?
> portrays genocide as a catastrophe that suddenly explodes into violence because of ancient religious, ethnic/racial hatreds, or tribalism.
Do genocides require planning? Who is the planning initated by? Why do they choose to initate it?
> a genocide requires a tremendous amount of planning and organization that occurs weeks, months, and even years before the actual killing takes place
> This planning is usually initiated by a government (or factions within a government) that has decided upon genocide as a way of achieving some goal.
What timeline influences a genocide?
(the cause of genocide lies in the …. not the …)
> the causes of genocide lie in the present, not in the past.
Irving Louis Horowitz, a scholar of genocide, identified eight kinds of societies in terms of their ability or willingness to perpetrate genocide - what are the eight types?
GS, D/IS, TS, HS, TRSS, GS, TOS, PS
1) Genocidal societies
2) Deportation or incarceration societies
3) Torture societies
4) Harassment societies
5) Traditional shame societies
6) Guilt societies
7) Tolerant societies
8) Permissive societies
What is a genocidal society (Suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz)?
> are those in which the state systematically kills members of a defined population for failing to live normatively.
What is a deportation or incarceration society (Suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz)?
> refers to societies in which the government removes and isolates members of a group from the larger society in an attempt to quarantine the dissidents and deviants from the larger and untainted community as a whole.
What is a torture society (Suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz)?
> describes those places where individuals are tortured and returned to the society as a warning about the dangers of opposition to the government.
> In these communities, human bodies are the medium upon which the state communicates its ideas about conformity.
What is a harrasment society (Suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz)?
> are those in which the state uses a variety of legal and other measures to intimidate and inconvenience identified populations.
> This typically involves the application of relatively petty statutes to harass and intimidate those who are thought to be guilty of greater infractions.
What is a traditional shame society? (Suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz)?
> concern those in which less-formal methods of ostracism and peer pressure are used to victimize deviants.
> Essentially, the group itself expresses its displeasure through informal social control methods such as shunning and shaming.
What is a guilt society? (Suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz)?
> on the other hand, rely more on internalized norms to prevent individuals from violating the moral order.
> A person’s inner code guides him or her into conformity.
What is a tolerant society? (Suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz)?
> are characterized by a willingness to accept difference even if it isn’t approved of.
What is a permissive society? (Suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz)?
> openly embrace and accept a diversity of normative standards
How are the eight archetypes of genocides suggested by Irving Louis Horowitz best understood
> These eight archetypes are best understood as a continuum of forms of governments that range from states that are willing and able to plan, organize, and carry out a genocide to those that are much more open and tolerant of political and social resistance and diversity.
Generally speaking, a number of motivations have been identified as providing the rationale for genocide. Helen Fein, a leading scholar of genocide, suggests four types of genocide in terms of motivation: What are they?
D,DE, I, R
> developmental, despotic, ideological, and retributive.
What is a developmental genocide motivation as per Helen Fein? What group does this happen to most and provide a specific example:
> Developmental genocides are those in which the targeted groups are seen as an impediment to the colonization and/or exploitation of a given geographic area.
> This happens most often against indigenous peoples who may be perceived as being “in the way” of progress.
> In Central and South America, many native peoples have been subjected to genocidal policies as various nations have attempted to remove them from land found to be rich in oil and valuable minerals.
What is a despotic genocide motivation as per Helen Fein? Provide an example:
> Despotic genocides, on the other hand, involve situations in which a government uses genocide as a weapon against rivals for political power.
> This kind of genocide may often be found in revolutionary situations where a new group has achieved power and works to eliminate any opposition to its authoritarian rule.
> Much of the violence in the Stalinist Soviet Union clearly fits into this category
What is a ideological genocide motivation as per Helen Fein? Provide an example (in general no specifics)
> refers to the attempted destruction of a population because of a belief system. At some level, all genocides are ideological
> While the specifics may vary, we can assert that genocide and related kinds of atrocities are often motivated, at least in part, by some form of ideology.
> These beliefs may include a variety of nationalistic, historical, scientific, and religious ideas that validate the violence.
> Very often that ideology is utopian in nature.
Where does the word Utopia generate from?
> The word utopia comes from Thomas More, who, in the book Utopia, described a rationally organized society in which all property was communally held.
Utopianism has been a significant ideological factor in many of the worst examples of genocide and other human rights violations. Provide some examples that relied on this ideology:
TN, KR, TS
> the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge, the Soviets, and a number of others all perpetrated their excesses in the name of building a better society.
What is a retributive genocides motivation as per Helen Fein? Provide an example (one genocide in particular)
> These are genocides perpetrated by one group against another in a struggle for political and social power.
> In contrast to despotic genocide, where power has already been taken and the enemies are often imaginary, this particular class of genocide concerns an ongoing struggle.
> The Rwandan genocide is illustrative of this type, since the Hutu government instigated the genocide against the Tutsi population partially because it was trying to maintain power during a civil war.
> rational and unplanned genocides
Political scientist R. J. Rummel has suggested that genocide and similar types of mass violence are crimes perpetrated almost exclusively by totalitarian states:
> are crimes perpetrated almost exclusively by totalitarian states.
Dictatorships and totalitarian governments are more prone to genocide. These kinds of governments are often based on what? And generally, given what kind of power, there are fewer limits on how that power is used which allows what?
> are often based on fear and coercion, and leadership is typically concentrated in a few hands.
> Generally, the more centralized power, the fewer limits there are on how that power is used, which provides greater freedom in pursuing genocidal policies.
Michael Mann’s work on ethnic cleansing and democracy suggests that the relationship is considered what? What are two points that prove his argument and what is the overall point of his argument?
> suggests that the relationship is a complex and dynamic one in which ostensibly democratic governments can perpetrate genocide.
1) democracies can define specific groups within a society that are afforded certain rights and protections, and those that are excluded may be vulnerable to victimization.
2) democratic states may start out as democratic but may devolve into ethnic cleansing and, in the process, become less democratic and more authoritarian.
> The point of Mann’s argument is that democracies may have a dark or pathological side that does not preclude them from perpetrating genocide.
What does Rummels work about genocides and dictatorships ignore?
> Rummel’s argument, however, ignores the fact that democratic states sometimes aid, abet, and encourage the genocidal actions of others
Another factor that links genocidal violence is what?
What factor makes genocide easier to perpetrate by the state?
> war
> war does make it much easier for a government to carry out this violence
> War tends to heighten nationalistic and patriotic feelings, and all too often, those feelings come at the expense of minority groups.
> nationalism and patriotism are often xenophobic and call into sharp relief differences among various population groups.
While war brings certain segments of a population closer and increases their feelings of togetherness, that increased solidarity often results in what? (Helen Fien coined this)
> often results in further distancing marginalized groups from what Helen Fein calls the universe of obligation.
> These feelings of segregation are intensified during wartime when a government and population may feel under threat and be more inclined to scapegoat a group for the problems and misfortunes of the larger community.
War also produces tremendous amounts of what? As a result, what feelings occur?
> tremendous amounts of psychological and social dislocation.
> war is inherently brutalizing and dehumanizing.
> Human life becomes much less valued when people are exposed to a great deal of death and suffering. Hardened to violence and killing, populations may be more willing to support—or at least tolerate—pressures toward genocide.
During times of upheaval, normal conventions and constraints on deviant or criminal behavior do what?
> are weakened or removed and often replaced with an attitude of “anything goes.”
> The formal and informal rules of social control are not seen as being relevant to the extraordinary experiences of individuals and communities during wartime, and in these circumstances, prohibitions against victimizing others are severely diminished.
Individuals who participate in genocide are generally considered what?
We are talking about mental health here.
> are generally not sociopaths, even though the crimes they commit are horrendous.
> The evidence indicates that most of the individuals who participate in genocide are relatively normal people who believe in the necessity of their actions.
> believe their acts are considered an act of self-defense and protection.
What are three reasons that prove that those who commit genocide are not sociopaths?
1) genocide requires the participation of literally thousands of individuals from all walks of life, and it is impossible that each of these individuals would be sociopaths.
2) most of the instigators of genocide are government officials and highly placed bureaucrats; again, it is unlikely that they all suffer from some sort of mental illness.
3) post-genocide trials indicate that the defendants are remarkably normal people.
What is Hannah Arendt’s famous characterization of the banality of evil?
> Adolf Eichmann was the Nazi official who was responsible for much of the logistical organization and planning of the Holocaust genocide.
> During his trial in 1960 in Israel, he was revealed to be a fairly bland and unremarkable bureaucrat whose decisions nevertheless resulted in the death of millions.
Michael Mann suggests that there are nine primary motivations for participation in genocide and classifies the killers according to those reasons - what are the nine types?
IP, BP, VP, FP, CP, MP, DP, CP, BP
1) Ideological perpetrators
2) Bigoted perpetrators
3) Violent perpetrators
4) Fearful perpetrators
5) Careerist perpetrators
6) Materialist perpetrators
7) Disciplined perpetrators
8) Comradely perpetrators
9) Bureaucratic perpetrators
What is Michael Mann’s ideological perp?
> are true believers who find their justification for participation in a belief system that demands the destruction of a group.
> This kind of killer is most typically drawn from among the social elites.
What is Michael Mann’s bigoted perp?
> are those who have prejudices against the populations being targeted for destruction.
> Often, these hatreds and stereotypes are long-standing and ancient, being rooted in history.
Describe Michael Mann’s violent perp:
> are those individuals who enjoy perpetrating violence.
> While clearly in the minority, some who participate in genocide can clearly be classified as sadistic or psychopathic.
> Some of these may be drawn to the violence because of innate tendencies, while others may find that their sensitivities are brutalized by the killing.
> People may also be attracted to the pleasure of having life-and-death power over others.
What is Michael Mann’s fearful perp?
> lend their help to the killing because they genuinely fear that they will be hurt or killed if they don’t participate.
> In both Rwanda and Bosnia, for example, some Hutu and Serbs, respectively, were killed when they opposed the killing or refused to participate.
What is Michael Mann’s careerist perp?
> are those who become perpetrators because they can advance their careers and get promotions and choice assignments through participation.
> For these individuals, assisting in the persecution of the victims is simply a way to get ahead professionally.
What is Michael Mann’s materialist perp?
> are those who try to profit from the genocide. During the violence in Bosnia, many participants helped themselves to the homes, cars, and appliances of their victims.
> In the Rwandan genocide, many Hutu saw participation as a means to acquire livestock and land.
> In a country in which open land was in short supply, this was a powerful incentive.
What is Michael Mann’s disciplined perp?
> are those who participate because of the need to conform within certain institutional settings where obeying orders is the norm and disobedience is punished.
> This is perhaps most applicable to police officers, military personnel, and militia members—all members of organizations in which obedience is very important.
What is Michael Mann’s Comradely perp?
> take part in the killing because they don’t want to let down their comrades and friends.
> This kind of killer participates because his bonds to the other members of the group or unit are stronger than any prohibitions he may have against participation.
> Similar to the motivation of the disciplined perpetrators, this motivation is most commonly found among military and police units.
What is Michael Mann’s Bureaucratic perp?
> are those who participate in genocide because they work in organizations that are called on to take part in the apparatus of killing.
> Their participation may be fairly small and mundane and appear fairly harmless—such as scheduling trains or compiling lists—but it is nonetheless ultimately lethal.
> In Germany, this kind of person has sometimes been described as a schreibtishtäter or desk murderer
Mann’s typology can best be understood how?
> can best be understood as illustrating some of the more common themes that help shape individual participation.
> genocide does not occur in a vacuum - the motivations of the perpetrators are supported and encouraged by the social context of their society.
Victim groups are often selected for extermination because they fall into what kind of category?
> because they fall into a stigmatized social category and individuals within such groups are victimized solely because they fit into a category that has been slated for destruction.
> They are killed because of how they are defined, not for what they have done.
Typically, the groups that are chosen are relatively considered what?
> are relatively powerless because their members have been socially and politically marginalized.
What is one particularly vulnerable type of minority group in genocide?
> tends to be middleman minority groups who serve as intermediaries between producers and consumers in a society and whose role therefore alienates them from the mainstream society.
In addition to victims and perpetrators, genocide also depends on bystanders. In other words, a genocide cannot take place unless what occurs?
> Genocide cannot take place unless the vast majority of a population allows it to take place.
> All genocides depend upon the active participation of the few and the passive acceptance of the many.
why do most people stand by without intervening in a genocide? (what are the main two reasons)
1) we have a built-in predisposition to defer to authority figures, and the government is one of the most powerful of authority figures.
* many within a society may come to agree with the policies of destruction that result in genocide. (these perceptions tend to be reinforced by others in their lives)
2) most people believe that there is nothing that can be done, that they are too powerless to prevent and/or stop the violence.
* These feelings of helplessness are often combined with large amounts of fear.
Can bystanders make a difference in a genocide? (Can they stop it) Provide two specific examples that prove this.
> bystanders can even bring a halt to genocidal violence.
> rescuers in occupied Europe saved many thousands of Jews who would otherwise have died in the gas chambers.
- In the 1930s, the Nazis began a euthanasia program against the mentally and physically handicapped.
- After information about this policy became known, ordinary Germans protested and forced the regime to stop the euthanasia plan.
What is a genocide by attrition?
> the concept of genocide by attrition to refer to this less direct style of destruction
> i.e. dying from malnutrition or disease or follow-up violence
- The livestock are usually taken away, while the homes and other buildings, together with the crops and food stores, are destroyed.
- The survivors of these attacks have been forced to hide out and have often been subjected to follow-up attacks as the militia and government troops
On April 16, 2002, something remarkable and unprecedented happened- what was that event?
> The Dutch government collapsed—or more specifically, the entire Dutch cabinet resigned because of a report that had been released the previous week that blamed the Dutch government for its failure to prevent the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, Bosnia, a town located in a narrow valley in the eastern part of Bosnia.
In the fall of 1996, the Dutch government—in response to a public outcry—commissioned what group? What was documented about the dutch government in this group? What was the response of the dutch government and what did this illustrate?
> commissioned the Netherlands Institute of War Documentation to investigate the Srebrenica massacre.
> the final report placed the blame for the massacre squarely on the shoulders of the Dutch government and senior military leaders.
> In response, government officials decided to take responsibility and resigned their positions en mass - illustrates a sense of accountability often lacking among political leaders.
This accountability is also evident in the case of the man who orchestrated the genocide in Bosnia, Slobodan Milošević. In April of 2001what occured?
> In April of 2001, Milošević surrendered to Serb police after losing the presidential election the previous year (he was guilty of other acts aside from genocide).
