"Poverty, Political Freedom, and the Roots of Terrorism"
BY: ALBERTO ABADIE
Harvard University
John F. Kennedy School of Government
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=617542
Paper ID: KSG Working Paper No. RWP04-043
Date: October 2004
Contact: ALBERTO ABADIE
Email: Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Postal: Harvard University
John F. Kennedy School of Government
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138 UNITED STATES
Phone: 617-496-4547
Fax: 617-495-2575
ABSTRACT:
This article provides an empirical investigation of the
determinants of terrorism at the country level. In contrast with
the previous literature on this subject, which focuses on
transnational terrorism only, I use a new measure of terrorism
that encompasses both domestic and transnational terrorism. In
line with the results of some recent studies, this article shows
that terrorist risk is not significantly higher for poorer
countries, once the effects of other country-specific
characteristics such as the level of political freedom are taken
into account. Political freedom is shown to explain terrorism,
but it does so in a non-monotonic way: countries in some
intermediate range of political freedom are shown to be more
prone to terrorism than countries with high levels of political
freedom or countries with highly authoritarian regimes. This
result suggests that, as experienced recently in Iraq and
previously in Spain and Russia, transitions from an
authoritarian regime to a democracy may be accompanied by
temporary increases in terrorism. Finally, the results suggest
that geographic factors are important to sustain terrorist
activities.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901
