Other People’s Terrorism: Ideology and the Perceived Legitimacy of Political Violence

When do Americans view political violence as legitimate? In this article, I use experimental methods to examine public perceptions of domestic perpetrated advance right-wing or left-wing agendas. Specifically, the extent which alignment ideology (conservative/liberal) with a cause influences legitimacy for objectively equivalent acts violence. Controlling variables such perpetrator identity, demonstrate that both how members perceive morality and they an act constituting terrorism, even when severity type target are identical. The findings have implications policy makers practitioners in designating terrorism developing policies prevent counter