Deductive and Active Databases: Two Paradigms or Ends of a Spectrum?

This position paper considers several existing relational database rule languages with a focus on exploring the fundamental di erences between deductive and active databases. We nd that deductive and active databases do not form two discernible classes, but rather they delineate two ends of a spectrum of database rule languages. We claim that this spectrum also corresponds to a notion of abstraction level, with deductive rule languages at a higher level and active rule languages at a lower level.