Terror (politics)
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Terror, from the Latin verb terrere meaning "to frighten",[1] is a policy of political repression and violence intended to subdue political opposition. The term was first used for the Reign of Terror imposed by the Jacobins during the French Revolution.[1][2] Modern instances of terror include red terror or white terror.
Before the advent of modern terrorism, the term "terrorism" in the English language was sometimes used interchangeable with terror. The modern definition of terrorism refers to criminal or illegal acts of violence at randomly chosen targets, in an effort to raise fear. It is practiced by extremist groups with a limited political base or parties on the weaker side in asymmetric warfare. Terror on the other hand is practiced by governments and law enforcement officials, usually within the legal framework of the state.
Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary terror
Revolutionary terror, also known as "red terror", was often used by revolutionary governments to suppress counterrevolutionaries. The first example was the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution in 1794.[3][4] Other notable examples include the Red Terror in Soviet Russia in 1918–1922, as well as simultaneous campaigns in the Hungarian Soviet Republic and in Finland. In China Red Terror in 1966 and 1967 started the Cultural revolution.
Counterrevolutionary terror is usually referred to as "white terror". Notable examples are the terror campaigns in France (1794–1795), in Russia (1917–20), in Hungary (1919–1921), and in Spain.
Terror and terrorism
David Forte states that the primary difference between terror and terrorism is that while terror can be neutrally evil, i.e. random violence committed by robbers, rapists and even soldiers, terrorism has the additional political or moral dimension, being the systemised use of randomly focused violence by organised groups against civilian targets to effect a political objective.[5]
However Charles Tilly defines "terror" as a political strategy defined as "asymmetrical deployment of threats and violence against enemies using means that fall outside the forms of political struggle routinely operating within some current regime", and therefore ranges from[6]:
- intermittent actions by members of groups that are engaged in wider political struggles to
- one segment in the modus operandi of durably organized specialists in coercion, including government-employed and government-backed specialists in coercion to
- the dominant rationale for distinct, committed groups and networks of activists.
According to Tilly, the term "terror" spans across a wide range of human cruelties, from Stalin's use of executions to clandestine attacks by groups like the Basque separatists and the IRA and even ethnic cleansing and genocide[7]
References
- ^ a b Kim Campbell (September 27, 2001). "When is 'terrorist' a subjective term?". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
New York Times columnist William Safire wrote that the word "terrorist" has its roots in the Latin terrere, which means "to frighten."
- ^ Geoffrey Nunberg (October 28, 2001). "Head Games / It All Started with Robespierre / "Terrorism": The history of a very frightening word". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
In 1792 the Jacobins came to power in France and initiated what we call the Reign of Terror and what the French call simply La Terreur.
- ^ "Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy", by Barrington Moore, Edward Friedman, James C. Scott (1993) ISBN 0807050733, p.101: "Social Consequences of Revolutionary Terror"
- ^ French revolutionary terror was a gross exaggeration, say Lafayette experts. By Chandni Navalkha. April 28, 2008. accessed 5-20-2009
- ^ Forte, David F. (1986). "Terror and Terrorism: There Is a Difference". Ohio Northern University Law Review. 13. Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law: 39–52.
- ^ Charles Tilly. Terror, Terrorism, Terrorists. Sociological Theory, Vol. 22, No. 1, Theories of Terrorism: A Symposium (Mar., 2004), pp. 5-13
- ^ Tilly, p9