Terrorism in the Worlds of Welfare Capitalism

Tim Krieger and Daniel Meierrieks

No 22, Working Papers CIE from Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics

Abstract: This contribution investigates the link between welfare policies and domestic terrorism for 15 Western European countries during 1984-2003. We argue that welfare policies improve national socio-economic conditions and thus increase the opportunity costs of terrorism. We investigate whether spending in certain policy fields translates into a reduction of terrorism, and whether certain worlds of welfare capitalism [Esping-Andersen (1990)] are more resistant to the threat of domestic terrorism. We find strong support that higher spending in certain policy fields is associated with a signficant reduction in domestic terrorist activity. Only moderate evidence indicates that the di¤erent worlds of welfare capitalism are differently prepared to deal with domestic terrorism. Spending - or the mere existence of a social system - seems to be more strongly associated with a reduction in domestic terrorism than the actual welfare systems' institutional design. Our findings are robust to a variety of specifications.

Keywords: Domestic Terrorism; Social Policy; Welfare Regimes; Worlds of Welfare Capitalism; Western Europe; Paradox of Redistribution; Beveridge vs. Bismarck (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 H5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2009-02
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Terrorism in the Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pdn:ciepap:22

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