Journal ArticleDOI
Rooted in Poverty?: Terrorism, Poor Economic Development, and Social Cleavages 1
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this article, a series of multiple regression analyses on terrorist incidents and casualties in ninety-six countries from 1986 to 2002, the authors considered the significance of poverty, malnutrition, inequality, unemployment, inflation, and poor economic growth as predictors of terrorism, along with a variety of political and demographic control variables.Abstract:
This study evaluates the popular hypothesis that poverty, inequality, and poor economic development are root causes of terrorism. Employing a series of multiple regression analyses on terrorist incidents and casualties in ninety-six countries from 1986 to 2002, the study considers the significance of poverty, malnutrition, inequality, unemployment, inflation, and poor economic growth as predictors of terrorism, along with a variety of political and demographic control variables. The findings are that, contrary to popular opinion, no significant relationship between any of the measures of economic development and terrorism can be determined. Rather, variables such as population, ethno-religious diversity, increased state repression and, most significantly, the structure of party politics are found to be significant predictors of terrorism. The article concludes that “social cleavage theory” is better equipped to explain terrorism than are theories that link terrorism to poor economic development.read more
Citations
More filters
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
Abstract: 1 July 7, 2010, marks the fifth anniversary of the 2005 terrorist attacks on London’s Metro system. In 2005, terrorists launched a coordinated attack against London’s transportation system, with 3 bombs detonating simultaneously at three different Metro stations and a fourth bomb exploding an hour later on a city bus. In all, there were 52 victims in these bombings with an additional 700 injuries resulting. The four terrorists who executed the attacks were killed in the explosions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Poverty, Political Freedom, and the Roots of Terrorism
TL;DR: In this paper, the determinants of terrorism at the country level were investigated and it was shown that countries in some intermediate range of political freedom are more prone to terrorism than countries with high levels of politicalfreedom or countries with highly authoritarian regimes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Incubators of Terror: Do Failed and Failing States Promote Transnational Terrorism?
TL;DR: This paper found that states plagued by chronic state failures are statistically more likely to host terrorist groups that commit transnational attacks, have their nationals commit trans-national attacks and are targeted by transnational terrorists themselves.
Journal ArticleDOI
Poverty, minority economic discrimination, and domestic terrorism
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors revisited the relationship between poverty and terrorism and suggested a new factor to explain patterns of domestic terrorism: minority economic discrimination, and found that countries featuring minority group economic discrimination are significantly more likely to experience domestic terrorist attacks.
Book ChapterDOI
Terrorism, Economic Development, and Political Openness: Kto Kogo? : A Cross-Country Study of the Origins and Targets of Terrorism
Alan B. Krueger,David D. Laitin +1 more
TL;DR: Berrebi et al. as mentioned in this paper found no correlation between economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the number of terrorist incidents against Israel and found no direct connection between education, poverty, and the propensity to participate in terrorism.
References
More filters
Book
An Economic Theory of Democracy
TL;DR: Downs presents a rational calculus of voting that has inspired much of the later work on voting and turnout as discussed by the authors, particularly significant was his conclusion that a rational voter should almost never bother to vote.
Book
Political Order in Changing Societies
TL;DR: This now-classic examination of the development of viable political institutions in emerging nations is a major and enduring contribution to modern political analysis as mentioned in this paper, and its Foreword, Francis Fukuyama assesses Huntington's achievement, examining the context of the original publication as well as its lasting importance.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War
James D. Fearon,David D. Laitin +1 more
TL;DR: This article showed that the current prevalence of internal war is mainly the result of a steady accumulation of protracted conflicts since the 1950s and 1960s rather than a sudden change associated with a new, post-Cold War international system.
Journal ArticleDOI
Political Order in Changing Societies.
Posted Content
Greed and Grievance in Civil War
Paul Collier,Anke Hoeffler +1 more
TL;DR: Collier and Hoeffler as discussed by the authors compare two contrasting motivations for rebellion: greed and grievance, and show that many rebellions are linked to the capture of resources (such as diamonds in Angola and Sierra Leone, drugs in Colombia, and timber in Cambodia).
Related Papers (5)
Education, Poverty and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?
Alan B. Krueger,Jitka Malečková +1 more