Rooted in Poverty?: Terrorism, Poor Economic Development, and Social Cleavages¹

Do Democracy and Free Markets Protect Us From Terrorism?

“…It is generally expected that countries with high Human Development indexes will experience fewer incidents of terrorism, although Piazza (2006) demonstrated that there is scant empirical evidence that poverty is a predictor of terrorism in cross-national analyses. Both Population and Geographic Area are expected to be positive predictors of terrorism as both represent significant structural impediments for states that aim to curb terrorism, and both are potential correlates for social cleavages and other sources of political conflict that might fuel terrorism.…”

Impact of Political Violence on the Socio- Economic Development of Yobe State, Nigeria

“…These policies according to Graeme et al (2011 [39]) reflects a belief that poverty is a root cause of support for militancy or at least that poorer and less-educated individuals are more prone to militants' appeals. Despite the strong beliefs about links between poverty and militancy that these aggressive policy best revealed that there is little solid evidence to support this contention as earlier examined through the works of Kruger (2002), Piazza (2006), and Diego and Steffen (2009).…”

“…In similar manner Piazza (2006 [31]) also carried out a study to determine whether poverty and low education are determinants of political violence activities in societies using the Rooted -in -Poverty hypothesis. According to Piazza (2006 It is worthy to mention here that empirical evidence refutes this hypothesis. Yet, it continues to be popular and the belief that political violence is a result of poverty, poor education and acute unemployment.…”

Does Income Inequality Lead to Terrorism? Evidence from the Post-9/11 Era

“…Second, with respect to the inequality-terrorism relationship, the empirical evidence is likewise mixed. While some studies find that inequality is indeed associated with more terrorism (e.g., Piazza, 2011), a majority of studies (e.g., Li, 2005;Abadie, 2006;Kurrild-Klitgaard et al, 2006;Piazza, 2006) find that income inequality does not matter.…”