Democracy and violence

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/opinion/30patterson.html?ref=opinion

NYT Op-ed on the relationship between violence and democracy, in light of the recent drug and political violence in Jamaica. Harvard Sociology Prof. Orlando Patterson gives three reasons why democratic societies tend to be more violent than authoritarian societies (which is personally interesting because I have heard that after Deng Xiaoping took power, crime in China got much worse than compared to the hardcore Communist years):

1. Electoral process
2. Exploitation of ethnic identity & organized crime
3. Transition period

In particular: old authoritarian norms and new incoming democratic ideas clash, and if there is no economic stability as nations progress to development, there is more violence over resource control.

Last thought: Maybe it's harder to establish a democracy in a multicultural society because there are competing and conflicting needs and wants and values.