ABSTRACT
The contemporary study of terrorism is marked principally by continuing confusion about its general significance for modern political life, and in particular about its relationship to the democratic state. The intimate connection between terrorism and ideological politics is vital for present purposes, since it is precisely the connection which distinguishes modern terrorism from earlier forms of political violence. In The Prince, for example, Niccolo Machiavelli expressed admiration for the success with which Cesare Borgia used terror in order to rule his subjects. The reference to legality, however, removes such a group from the terrorist fold by taking account of the fact that the party was in practice quite law-abiding, to the annoyance of a minority of its own genuinely radical members. One familiar way consists of assuming that terrorism is a peculiarity of left or right wing fanatics, and then concentrating attention upon what are taken to be the relevant representatives of the wing in question.
