Abstract

Although this analysis tackles the immense question of political terrorism, it nevertheless has limited ambitions. It treats only that part of terrorist movements whose primary object is the destruction of modern liberal democracy and its institutions. It analyzes only the Italian Red Brigades and the German Fractional Red Army, not Irish, Basque, Corsican, or Palestinian terrorism. Actually, the destruction of physical objects or the murder of human beings which characterizes this political practice generally takes as its goal and justification those political or national rights which have until now been denied by the authority against which the attack is directly or indirectly aimed