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You Shall Not Overkill: Substitution Between Means of Group Removal

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Published/Copyright: December 17, 2013
Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy
From the journal Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy Volume 19 Issue 3

Abstract

This note places mass killing in a continuum of actions that a ruling power can take to remove an unwanted group from a society; that is, it views extermination as a means to an end, and it assumes that rulers are rational and will choose the combination of means that can achieve their goal at the minimum cost to themselves. The means are assimilation into the general society, physical removal from view (through either deportation within the country or exile from the country), and extermination. The note develops a simple model of input choice geared to cost minimization and then finds encouraging support from the historical evidence on communist regimes.

Keywords: extermination; exile; deportation; assimilation; cost minimization
Corresponding author: Mario Ferrero, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice (POLIS), University of Eastern Piedmont, Via Cavour 84, 15100 Alessandria, Italy, Fax: +39.0131.283704, E-mail:
  1. 1

    If the ruler is constrained by a given total budget, his problem becomes one of cost-constrained quantity maximization – the dual of the problem of quantity-constrained cost minimization discussed in the text. If the shapes of the isocost and isoquant curves are as posited above, again an interior solution will generally be optimal.

  2. 2

    Such a prescription can be seen as a realist, if pessimistic, effort at minimizing violence, very much in the spirit of Kaufmann’s (1998) argument for population transfer and partition as tools to end ethnic civil wars in cases of extreme hostility between groups.

An earlier draft of this note was presented at the 13th Jan Tinbergen European Peace Science Conference (Catholic University of Milan, June 24–26, 2013), whose participants provided interesting discussion. The author is indebted to the editor and two referees of this Journal for very helpful suggestions.

References

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Published Online: 2013-12-17
Published in Print: 2013-12-01

©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Masthead
  4. Introduction
  5. International Relations
  6. Major Power Status (In)Consistency and Political Relevance in International Relations Studies
  7. New Incentives and Old Organizations: The Production of Violence After War
  8. When the Weak Roar: Understanding Protracted Intrastate Conflict
  9. Determinants of Extremism
  10. You Shall Not Overkill: Substitution Between Means of Group Removal
  11. Does Higher Education Decrease Support for Terrorism?
  12. The Curvilinear Effects of Economic Development on Domestic Terrorism
  13. Regional Dimensions of Somali Piracy and Militant Islamism: Anthropological and Econometric Evidence
  14. Institutions Factors and Violence
  15. Climate Change and the Risk of Mass Violence: Africa in the 21st Century
  16. Constitutional Design and Conflict Management in Africa
  17. An Overview of the Influence of Domestic Constraints on Crisis Initiation and Termination
  18. Consequences of War and Militarization
  19. Macroeconomic Consequences of War and Terrorism in Lebanon
  20. A Note on War and Fiscal Capacity in Developing Countries
  21. On Defence Expenditure Reduction: Balancing Between Austerity and Security in Greece
  22. North Korea as a Military Dictatorship
https://doi.org/10.1515/peps-2013-0045
Keywords for this article
extermination; exile; deportation; assimilation; cost minimization

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Masthead
  4. Introduction
  5. International Relations
  6. Major Power Status (In)Consistency and Political Relevance in International Relations Studies
  7. New Incentives and Old Organizations: The Production of Violence After War
  8. When the Weak Roar: Understanding Protracted Intrastate Conflict
  9. Determinants of Extremism
  10. You Shall Not Overkill: Substitution Between Means of Group Removal
  11. Does Higher Education Decrease Support for Terrorism?
  12. The Curvilinear Effects of Economic Development on Domestic Terrorism
  13. Regional Dimensions of Somali Piracy and Militant Islamism: Anthropological and Econometric Evidence
  14. Institutions Factors and Violence
  15. Climate Change and the Risk of Mass Violence: Africa in the 21st Century
  16. Constitutional Design and Conflict Management in Africa
  17. An Overview of the Influence of Domestic Constraints on Crisis Initiation and Termination
  18. Consequences of War and Militarization
  19. Macroeconomic Consequences of War and Terrorism in Lebanon
  20. A Note on War and Fiscal Capacity in Developing Countries
  21. On Defence Expenditure Reduction: Balancing Between Austerity and Security in Greece
  22. North Korea as a Military Dictatorship
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