One might add that, in the longer term still, further compromises
with the pre-revolutionary tradition are likely. This is not to deny,
however, that revolutions can transform societies – they are often
accompanied by a major transformation in the role and power of the
state, massive changes in property ownership and in the type of
legitimacy claimed by the state.
Terror and terrorism
The UK Terrorism Act (2000) defines terrorism as ‘the use or threat
for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause,
of action which involves serious violence against any person or
property’. This is a definition that has been criticised as so wide as
to include open militant actions by a variety of legitimate protest
groups. It is also interesting in that, as it stands, it is not limited to
conspiratorial groups seeking to overthrow a government. Arguably
it could be applied to governments themselves. (See Whittaker, 2001:
Ch. 1 for a discussion of rival definitions.)
In practice it is clear that the most common users of wide-
spread politically motivated violence are governments themselves.
Clausewitz [1780–1831] famously described war as ‘nothing but
the continuation of politics with the admixture of other means’
(Clausewitz, 1967). Clearly wars involve the use of violence on an
extended scale – with civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq
clearly exceeding the number of victims of Al Qaeda’s destruction of
the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
Whilst some wars can be defended as legitimate, widespread use of
violence without due process of law against a state’s own citizens is
characteristic of totalitarian states such as the Soviet Union and Nazi
Germany (see Chapter 6) and widely found in military and authori-
tarian regimes. In Argentina, for instance, a ‘dirty war’ was waged by
the former military regime against its suspected opponents who
frequently disappeared as a result of officially protected hit squads.
The ‘terror’ may be seen as primarily a weapon of state, rather than
anti-state violence.
Contemporary usage, however, tends to identify terrorism with
ideologically motivated violence against states by conspiratorial
opposition groups particularly where the targeting of violence appears
to be indiscriminate. The difference between ‘freedom fighters’ and
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