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Kompass

Thinkers and political figures

Photograph of Pol Pot in a dark jacket.

Portrait: Photograph, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Attribution

Pol Pot

Country
Cambodia
Era
1925–1998
Tradition
Agrarian totalitarianism

Leader of the Khmer Rouge, who emptied Cambodia’s cities, abolished money, schools and private life, and killed roughly a quarter of the population in less than four years.

01

Documented positions

Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.

  • Ordered the total evacuation of Cambodia’s cities in April 1975, forcing the entire urban population into rural labour
  • Abolished money, markets, private property, wages and banking outright
  • Closed schools, universities, hospitals and religious institutions, and abolished Buddhism as the state religion
  • Declared "Year Zero", aiming to restart Cambodian society from an agrarian base with no inherited institutions
  • Targeted the educated, ethnic minorities, religious clergy and former officials for systematic execution
  • Broke with Vietnam and aligned Cambodia with China, then attacked Vietnamese border provinces
02

Where it sits on each dimension

Wealth and inequality

1

Evidence: Well documented

The state in the economy

1

Evidence: Well documented

Personal liberty

1

Evidence: Well documented

Nation and the world

96

Evidence: Well documented

Religion and the state

1

Evidence: Well documented

Power and its limits

1

Evidence: Well documented

Crime and punishment

1

Evidence: Well documented

Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Tradition and change, Environment and growth

Sources

  • David P. Chandler, Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot · Westview Press · 1999
  • Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Case 002/02 Judgement · 2018

Last verified: