State Legitimacy and Terrorism

Studies that focus on the causes of terrorism often overlook the issue of legitimacy. Ehud Sprinzak first spoke about the relationship between legitimacy and terrorism to explain why mobilized groups transition from political opposition movements to terrorism. This study advances upon this analysis by assessing the relationship between a state's legitimacy and the occurrence of domestic terrorism. The data suggest that legitimacy is a robust predictor of terrorism and merits further investigation as a causal variable.