Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity | Political Groups

A political group exists when people assemble together in order to promote a common ideology and achieve particular objectives in the public, governmental sphere. Political parties and trade unions are political groups. These days the existence of an opposition party is usually regarded as the characteristic of a democracy itself, as the strength of democracy is to allow political dissent.

Governing elites are likely to use political repression for several reasons. It is often the case that political repression and lack of democratic representation are linked. Government officials use political repression against opponents—real or potential—in order to weaken their capacity to question or offer alternatives to official government policy.

In some situations governing elites view certain political groups as inherently suspect, because the ideology advocated by the group, or its methods, threaten democracy itself. This...