“The more power a government has, the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of theelite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. The moreconstrained the power of governments, the more power is diffused, checked, and balanced, the less it willaggress on others and commit mass violence. At the extremes of power, totalitarian governments slaughtertheir people by the tens of millions. In contrast, many democracies can barely bring themselves to executeeven serial murderers.”Rudolph Rummel, United States political scientist,Death by Government, 19941. a) Identify ONE historical example of mass violence that was committed by a totalitarian state in the twentiethcentury that would support Rummel’s argument in the passage.b) Explain ONE historical example of a democratic state committing mass violence that would challengeRummel’s argument regarding democracies and mass violence.c) Explain ONE development in the late twentieth century that likely shaped Rummel’s view of the relationshipbetween democracy and mass violence.GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.-2-© 2018 The College Board.Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.

a) One historical example of mass violence committed by a totalitarian state in the twentieth century that would support Rummel's argument is the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler's regime. This event saw the systematic genocide of six million Jews, along with millions of other people deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime, including Romani people, disabled individuals, and political dissidents.

b) One historical example of a democratic state committing mass violence that would challenge Rummel's argument is the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II. These bombings resulted in the immediate deaths of approximately 200,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and caused long-term effects such as radiation sickness and cancer.

c) One development in the late twentieth century that likely shaped Rummel's view of the relationship between democracy and mass violence is the end of the Cold War. The fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent democratization of many Eastern European countries could have influenced Rummel's perspective, as it led to a decrease in state-sponsored violence in those regions. This event may have reinforced his belief in the correlation between democracy and reduced mass violence.