Following the protest movements and radicalism of the late sixties, many affluent countries experienced lethal revolutionary terrorism. Groups like the Red Brigades in Italy and the Red Army Faction in Germany provoked political crises in their countries. Other affluent countries, however, did not experience this same kind of violence.
This book offers a historical-comparative explanation of this cross-national variation, focusing on the development paths followed by countries during the interwar period.
The countries that followed a non-liberal path (marked by anarchist terrorism, democratic breakdowns, civil wars, land inequality, non-liberal capitalism, and late industrialization) suffered lethal left-wing terrorism decades later.
Terrorism is thus explained as a feature of the political and economic system. Drawing on several fields, including comparative politics, political economy, international relations, and historical sociology, this book offers novel hypotheses about the determinants of violent conflict.
I am Professor of Political Science and Director of the Carlos III-Juan March Institute of Social Sciences at Carlos III University of Madrid. I have worked previously at Complutense University of Madrid (2002-2013), University Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona (1997-1999) and University of Salamanca (1995-1997). During the academic year 2004-05, I was the Rice Visiting Professor at Yale University.
My main research areas are comparative politics, political violence, terrorism and theory of democracy.
I have published articles in journals such as Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Annual Review of Political Science, European Union Politics, Politics & Society, Terrorism and Political Violence, Party Politics, Government & Opposition, Philosophy of Social Sciences, South European Society and Politics and several others.
I have also published a number of books in English and Spanish. My last book is The Historical Roots of Political Violence. Revolutionary Terrorism in Affluent Countries (Cambridge University Press, 2019). I have co-edited two books, one with José María Maravall, Controlling Governments. Voters, Institutions and Accountability (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and another one with Elias Dinas, Voter and Parties in the Spanish Political Space (Routledge, 2014). Among several other titles in Spanish, I am the author of Atado y mal atado. El suicidio institucional del franquismo y el surgimiento de la democracia (Alianza, 2014), and ETA contra el Estado. Las estrategias del terrorismo (Tusquets, 2001).
You can check my CV here:
You can check my CV here:
Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca 