Rethinking State Capacity: Conceptual Effects on the Incidence of Terrorism

The civil conflict literature often relies on state capacity having significant impacts on the risk of, and duration of, civil war and other civil conflicts. Many characteristics of civil conflict are often similar to terrorism, especially domestic terrorism, and are also considered when discussing the predictors of terror. However, what is not considered in either area of the literature is alternative characteristics of state capacity, namely, the degree of fragmentation in the policymaking branches, and its ability to enforce and carry out the laws that are implemented. This paper examines these effects, expanding the interpretation of state capacity to include these aforementioned concepts, and testing them simultaneously with the extant interpretation of capacity. Results show that when including these additional characteristics of capacity, previously accepted predictors are no longer relevant in predicting terrorism.