Citizen Fear of Terrorism in the Americas

Elizabeth J. Zechmeister, Daniel Montalvo, Jennifer L. Merolla
AQ Web Exclusive
Summer 2010

Image courtesy of Globovision.

Increased sophistication, scope, and fatalities define modern terrorism and leave few corners of the globe immune from its threat. Terrorism (destructive attacks against non-military targets typically for political purposes) has had a greater presence in some countries in the Americas, such as Colombia and Peru, but terrorist acts have been recorded elsewhere in recent years including Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Even in countries that have not experienced significant terrorist attacks, many citizens express concerns about terrorism so that, on average, worry about terrorism in the Americas is relatively high.

Fear of terrorism is important because it affects the ways people think about others and about government. Merolla and Zechmeister (2009) show that the threat of terror can increase distrust and authoritarianism, change how people evaluate political leaders and affect preferences over the balance of power, civil liberties and foreign policy. This shows there is important reason to be concerned about the extent to which people in the Americas are fearful of terrorist attacks.

This Insights report provides a portrait of worry about terrorism in the Americas and assesses some factors that predict it. Respondents to the 2010 AmericasBarometer survey by LAPOP were asked the following question: how worried are you that there will be a violent attack by terrorists in [country] in the next 12 months?

Read the full text of this article at www.AmericasQuarterly.org

Daniel Montalvo is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Vanderbilt University.

Elizabeth J. Zechmeister is an associate professor of Political Science and associate director of the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP).

Jennifer L. Merolla is an associate professor and chair in the Department of Politics and Policy at Claremont Graduate University.

Merolla and Zechmeister are the authors of Democracy at Risk: How Terrorist Threats Affect the Public (University of Chicago Press, 2009).

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