ABSTRACT

The history of party politics and modern forms of terrorist violence suggests there have been frequent points of convergence between the activities of party organizations around the world and the use of the gun and the bomb to achieve political objectives. In this chapter we hope to achieve three goals. First, we want to specify the political conditions that promote linkage between party politics and terrorism. Second, we intend to discuss the range of possible relationships that exist between political parties and terrorist groups. We believe these relationships are often both dynamic and reciprocal: parties may turn to terror, but terrorist groups may turn to the electoral arena to pursue their goals by appealing to voters and vice versa.1