User:Youknowwhatimsayin/sandbox/Mass killings under liberal democracies

Mass killings have occurred under the authority of some liberal democracies. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, depending on the definitions and methodology used. Many of these events can be seen as the result of colonialism, imperialism, or capitalism. Some of these events have taken place internally for the purpose of political repression or ethnic cleansing.

Scholarship focuses on the causes of mass killings in single societies, though some claims of common causes for mass killings have been made. Some higher estimates of mass killings include not only mass murders or executions that took place during the elimination of political opponents, civil wars, terror campaigns, and imperialism, but also lives lost due to war, famine, disease, and exhaustion in labor camps.