The purpose of this paper is to close the gap between terrorism and other non-terroristic conflicts which exist in the normal world, and to identify the behavioral links between various forms of terrorism and less radical disputes. The paper argues that all rebel terrorist organizations have a long pre-terroristic history, and are products of a prolonged process of delegitimation with the powers that be. It shows that this rather lengthy trajectory of radicalization can be divided into smaller development stages, and is open to an unconventional theoretical manipulation. Three consecutive ideological and behavioral stages are identified: Crisis of Confidence; Conflict of Legitimacy; and Crisis of Legitimacy, The paper also offers a new classification of terrorist organizations, according to the type of the delegitimation processes they undergo: ‘Transformational Delegitimation’; ‘extensional Delegitimation’; and ‘Split Delegitimation’, and demonstrates and analytic and empirical usefulness of the new approach. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.
CITATION STYLE
Sprinzak, E. (1991). The Process of Delegitimation: Towards a Linkage Theory of Political Terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 3(1), 50–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546559108427092
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