Revisiting the Economics and Terrorism Nexus: Collective Deprivation, Ideology and Domestic Radicalization in the US (19
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Revisiting the Economics and Terrorism Nexus: Collective Deprivation, Ideology and Domestic Radicalization in the US (1948–2016) Simon Varaine1,2
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Objectives Studies generally find no relationship between economic deprivation and terrorist activities, leading to the conclusion that economic conditions have no role in the emergence of terrorist movements. The present paper challenges this conclusion. It argues that collective deprivation affects participation into terrorism, but in different directions depending on the ideology of terrorist movements: far-right terrorism should mobilize more under times of collective deprivation while far-left terrorism should mobilize more under times of collective improvement. Methods I tested this hypothesis on the PIRUS database about domestic terrorists (N = 1295) in the United States from 1948 to 2016. I analysed whether the proportion of far-right (versus far-left) terrorists in a given year depends on collective deprivation in the US, operationalized through long-term recession of the income and long-term growth of inequality. Results Hierarchical logistic regression analyses confirmed that far-right terrorism mobilizes more under periods of long-term economic deprivation, while far-left terrorism mobilizes more under improving economic conditions. Besides, the effect of collective deprivation appears to be of socio-tropic nature: it is especially determinant at the national level, rather than at the state or individual level. In contrast, results do not support the view that Islamist terrorism is affected by collective deprivation. Conclusions The study challenges the view that economic conditions have no role in triggering terrorist mobilization. The differential effect of collective deprivation on farright and far-left terrorism is compatible with system-justification and backlash theories. Besides, the findings suggest that collective deprivation affects radicalization at an early phase rather than the offending phase. Keywords Deprivation · Terrorism · Ideology · Radicalization Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1094 0-019-09422-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Simon Varaine simon.varaine@etu‑iepg.fr 1
PACTE, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Science Po Grenoble, School of Political Studies, 38000 Grenoble, France
2
Sciences Po Grenoble, 1030 Avenue Centrale, 38400 Saint‑Martin‑d’Hères, France
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Quantitative Criminology
Introduction For the past decades, the idea that terrorism emerges from situations of economic deprivation has been disproven by several empirical studies. At the individual level, terrorists are not generally drawn from impoverished backgrounds (Krueger and Malečková 2003; Sageman 2004; Krueger 2008; Russell and Miller 1977; Clark 1983; Speckhard and Akhmedova 2006). At the collective level, indicators of economic contractions
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