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Abuse of Power John P. J. Dussich

Abuse of Power John P. J. Dussich. August 19, 2009 “The lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions.” Tacitus. Introduction.

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Abuse of Power John P. J. Dussich

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  1. Abuse of PowerJohn P. J. Dussich August 19, 2009 “The lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions.” Tacitus The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  2. Introduction • In 1532 Niccolo Machiavelli, a well known Italian statesman and writer, in trying to gain political favor with a corrupt government so as to unite Italy, wrote in his book The Prince, that “to get power and remain in power a leader had to forget ideals.” Although these suggestions did not reflect his true philosophy and he wrote outside his true convictions, it permanently associated him with corruption and abuse. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  3. History • From antiquity to the present, history is replete with dramatic and diverse examples of individual victim abusers of power. Some of the more infamous were: Caligula, Nero, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Shaka the Zulu, Adolf Hilter, Josef Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosović, and Saddam Hussein. • However, some responses to abuses have also motivated individual crusaders, who became heroes on behalf of mass victim suffering: Mahatma Gandhi, Harriet Tubmen, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  4. For and Against Abuse • The abusers The crusaders The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  5. Examples of Abuse of Power victims: 1944 in Germany - Jews 1994 in Rwanda - Tutsis The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  6. Some responses have been organized violent efforts resulting in wars within and between nations. • Some have been peaceful efforts resulting in organizations created to address major abuses: Amnesty International, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, World Society of Victimology, International Society for Social Defense. • The international instrument created in 1985 to alert the world about the international resolve against abuse of power was the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. • The most recent organization created to deal directly and legally with abusers of power is the International Criminal Court located in the Hague, the Netherlands. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  7. Basic Definitions • Abuse – The violation of a standard, especially an agreed upon standard, where persons, either “individually or collectively, have suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that do not yet constitute violations of national criminal laws but of internationally recognized norms relating to human rights” (UN Declaration, 1985). • Power – “A recognized aggregation of forces of significant magnitude to exert a major influence over people” (Dussich, 1991). The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  8. Other Definitions • I define abuse of power as the violation of an international standard in the use of forces such that persons are injured physically, mentally, emotionally, economically, or in their rights, as a direct and intentional result of the misapplication of these forces (Dussich, 1991). The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  9. Causal Statement • Using the behavioral precepts of my Psycho/social Coping Model, a causal statement for abuse of power would be: • “Abuse of power results when a powerful social entity (abuser) with extensive resources seeking specific objectives, takes purposive actions (methods) to obtain expected rewards, with little or no regard for the injury caused to persons (victims), principles or property. The expectations and methods used are shaped by learned, socio-cultural notions that justify violations of international standards that promise significant rewards with impunity.” The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  10. Taxonomy • Based on this causal statement a taxonomy is hereby presented based on three of the main variables: an abuser who misuses power; a method which directs that power; and, a victim who suffers from the abuse of that power. • Using this taxonomy six infamous examples of abuse of power are here listed: The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  11. Examples of Collective Abusers of Power The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  12. Pragmatics • Prevention – To effectively achieve any success at social change we must go beyond repeated descriptions of abuses of power (no matter how compelling). We must move to action that can directly thwart those decisions which give rise to abuse of power behaviors. • Measurement – the magnitude of the abuse of power problem far exceeds the problem of conventional crime. Yet, few comprehensive studies have been conducted to measure its extent and nature. The closest estimates indicate that the last century’s abuses of power killings were close to the entire world population at the time of Jesus Christ just two millennia ago (169 million compared toabout 200 millon) (Rummel, 1997). The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  13. continued • More humans have been killed because of the abuse of power in the past century than in any of the other previous centuries (estimated at 169,000,000 people). • In almost all abuse of power events great rewards were reaped by the abusers; in almost all cases abusers enjoyed complete impunity; and, in some cases the abusers were made heroes as a direct result of their actions. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  14. Theory The three most often cited theoretical perspectives on international conflict are: the functionalist, the conflict and the social psychological. • The functionalist perspective focuses on the product of world disorganization. Each nation has different self interests; as these collide with one another, disputes arise which result in war and produce mass victimization. • The conflict perspective focuses on economic and political exploitation. The capitalist nations obtain labor and raw materials from underdeveloped nations reaping vast profits; and, in their wake, leave large numbers of victims. • The social psychological perspective considers both individual and cultural issues. Thus,. instinctive as well as learned aggressiveness produces a sense of ethnocentric territoriality, which when threatened, produces armed warfare and mass victimization. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  15. Conclusions • It is clear that our world mechanisms to prevent abuses of power by rouge nations is, for the most part, ineffective. If the current trend continues, this next century will experience an even greater number of abuses of power and the victim numbers will exceed those of past centuries. • The facts are: the world population continues to grow at an unprecedented rate (if current growth continuesthe world's population of 6.5 billion today will become 13 billion by 2067); recent violations of human rights abuses have gone mostly unpunished; most of these offenders have enjoyed the fruits of their abuses with impunity; the UN’s Security Council and the International Criminal Court in the Hague are very slow, under- staffed, under-funded and politically handicapped to the point of virtual ineffectiveness; and, the victims of abuses of power, for the most part, do not get the services they need and deserve. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  16. A Possible Solution • In my opinion at least three essential changes must take place to prevent further abuses: 1st, armed political power must be defused, shared and controlled within a democratic course; 2nd, all violations must be responded to by the community of nations quickly, decisively with adequate severity of punishment so that the basic principles of deterrence will thwart those who might contemplate future abuses of power; and, 3rd, an international resolve against this trend must be manifested in an existing world organization, logically the United Nations. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  17. A Plan of Action • I propose that: 1. a deterrent mechanism be established by the UN Security Council so that realistic and humane methods are created to bring offenders to justice; 2. programs be initiated to target cultural supports that encourage hero worship for those who would use armed force against ethnic groups who have been marked as historical enemies and replaced with new heroes who work toward and successfully achieve peaceful resolutions for conflicts among old enemies; 3. democratic institutions be encouraged and supported in all countries, especially among those authoritative and totalitarian regimes from whence most of the abuse of power emanates, so that power becomes a shared entity, monitored and controlled to serve the needs of all the people it is entrusted to protect and accountable to recognized international human rights norms and standards; and, 4. all living abuse of power victims be treated with state of the art interventions to insure that their sufferings are addressed such that victims are brought to a functional level of recovery with dignity and humanness as an action reflecting the joint resolve of the community of nations. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  18. “We owe respect to the living; to the dead we owe only truth.” Voltaire The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  19. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

  20. References • Dussich, J. P. J. (1991) “Some theoretical and Pragmatic Observations on the Abuse of Power,” Victims and Criminal Justice: Particular Groups of Victims Part 2, G. Kaiser, H. Kury, H.-J. Albrecht (eds.) Freiburg in Breisgau: Max-Planck-Institute für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht volume 52. • Machiavelli, N. (1532) The Prince and other works. (1941) Translated by A. H. Gilbert. Chicago: Packard and Company. • Rummel, R. J. (1997) Statistics of Democide, Charlotte, Virginia, Center for National Security Law, School of Law, University of Virginia, New Brunswick, N. J. Transaction Publishers and Rutgers Univeristy. • United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, (1985) Adopted by the General Assembly Resolution 40/34 of 29 November 1985. • Voltaire, A. de (1840) Premiere Lettre sur Oedipe. Theatres Francais Dramatiques de Voltaire. The 9th APGC on Victimology and Victim Assistance

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