ABSTRACT
Liberal democracy is a fairly recent (nineteenth-century) development that in theory provides ample scope for political opposition and participation within the law.1 It is because they enjoy constitutional legitimacy in the eyes of the majority of their citizens that modern liberal democracies have proved remarkably resilient against terrorist campaigns by extremist political movements. Compared to colonial regimes and autocracies the Western liberal democracies have been remarkably free of large-scale revolutionary strife and separatist wars. However, they have not proved to be immune against terrorist attacks: on the contrary, the intrinsic freedoms of the democratic society make the tasks of terrorist propaganda, recruitment, organisation and the mounting of operations a relatively easy matter. There is ease of movement in and out of the country, and freedom of travel within it. Rights of free speech and a free media can be used as shields for terrorist defamation of democratic leaders and institutions and terrorist incitement to violence. If the government is provoked into introducing emergency powers, suspending democracy in order to defend it, there is always the risk that by using heavy repression to crush the terrorist campaign the authorities may alienate the innocent majority of citizens caught up in the procedures of house-to-house searches and interrogations.
