Terror's True Nightmare? Reevaluating the Consequences of Terrorism on Democratic Governance

Abstract Some scholars argue that terrorism has few adverse consequences for political and civil liberties in democracies and that fears about a reversal of freedoms due to counterterror programs are unjustified. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that democracies respond to terrorism in ways that curtail at least some of the rights that define democratic governance. In an analysis of a large sample of the world's nations, this study finds that terrorism has deleterious effects on regimes' respect for civil and human rights but few consequences for overall political access. I conclude that terrorism has measurable negative influences on particular aspects of democracy. Keywords: civil rightsdemocracydemocratic governancedissentpolitical rightsrepressionterrorism Notes Robust z statistics in brackets. *significant at 10%; **significant at 5%; ***significant at…