Non-Legal Violence and Terrorism in Western Industrial Societies: An Historical Analysis

Abstract

Since the early 1960s we have been able to observe a general revival of violence and individual terror as a means to achieve a wide range of political aims, not only in relatively backward and internally disrupted societies of the Third World, but also in the great industrial nations of the West, in the USA, Japan and Central Europe. This phenomenon requires a more comprehensive explanation than the currently fashionable explanatory models in terms of social psychology or ideology. Since the end of the Second World War it has been possible, particularly in those countries and regions within the sphere of influence of the USA and her Western allies, to re-establish relatively stable democratic societies. The remarkable economic recovery of the 1950s facilitated the creation of functioning parliamentary systems that were accepted by the broad mass of the population as an appropriate form of modern government, even if their democratic spirit was still somewhat meagerly developed. Such revolutionary trends of the Left as did exist soon lost their momentum, while the number of potential adherents of extremist political groups of the Right also diminished steadily.KeywordsTerrorist GroupViolent ActionSocial ProtestGuerilla WarfareArmed StruggleThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.