Political terrorism and the size of government: A positive institutional analysis of violent political activity
Political terrorism has been described as violent political behavior primarily designed to generate fear in the community, or a substantial part of it, for political purposes.' Political terrorism is distinguished from revolution in that the immediate objective of terrorist acts is intimidation rather than the overthrow of the existing government. Terrorism is a form of political extortion. Positive theories of crime 2 and extortion 3 assume that individuals will act to maximize some objective function subject to existing social or legal constraints. However, there is no parallel to these positive approaches aimed directly at the subject of political terrorism. Existing literature (hereafter referred to collectively as traditional literature) is dominated by the writings of psychologists, sociologists, and historians. Within these works, political purposes are typically defined as ideological in nature. As a result, political terrorists are assumed to be ideological zealots, willing to kill and be killed in order to further 'the cause'. Within this context positive analysis becomes difficult. Few analysts can rationalize such extreme behavior. As a result, traditional studies are forced to search for typically unobservable psychological and socio-economic characteristics as explanations for violent behavior. Frequently cited causes of political terrorism are lack of self-esteem (Kaplan, 1978: 245), emancipation afforded women (Dobson and Payne, 1979: 51), economic and political alienation and relative depravation (Bassouini, 1975; Gurr, 1969 and 1970; Dollard et al., 1939; and Wilkinson, 1977). Terrorists are characterized as irrational (Wilkinson, 1977: 49) or insane (National Advisory Committee..., p. 20). The dominant theme in the existing literature is a call for expansion of
Some considerations on contemporary terrorism
Numerous political figures who are currently highly respected have been branded as terrorists in previous periods of their lives. Indeed they have resorted to objectively terroristic tactics in order to promote the call is that they cherished before they reached, in some cases, the highest responsible positions in their countries. Language: en
An elementary analysis of an energy absorbing device: The rolling torus load limiter
Abstract Expressions are derived for the torque per unit length of circumference and the energy necessary to initiate or continuously to turn inside-out a solid metal torus.