Does Regime Type Influence Terrorism?
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
What are the root causes of terrorism? This particular question has driven research in the field for decades. Studies have explored potential explanations ranging from market economies, poverty, social cleavages, globalization, to regime type (specifically democratic regimes). The end result is a rather muddled picture. All factors appear to have some impact on terrorism. Of course the findings are often a reflection of the type of data employed, the level of analysis, and a tendency to treat all terrorism as equivalent. The latter issue is driving this present study. What do we learn when we distinguish international terrorism from domestic or homegrown terrorism? Scholarship is often a prisoner to the data available forcing us into imperfect studies to do what we can with what we have. The sorry condition of available data has forced students to adapt by constructing studies that lump all forms of terrorism together, and then assume domestic conditions equally explain domestic and international terrorism. Logically the two forms of terrorism are driven by separate conditions. Poverty in one country cannot logically explain why international terrorist groups infiltrate and conduct terrorist operations in another, unrelated country.
