Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Is inequality a main driver of terrorism? Most research on terrorism perpetrators maintains that radicalization does not hold close ties to economic status or education, but rather social environment and other individual characteristics. In theory, this would also suggest that economic inequality is not a decisive factor when we speak of terrorism and propensity to radicalize. After all, there are highly unequal countries such as Chile or China which do not display the same radical tendencies among its population. Inequality, however, has a hefty social dimension that has been largely ignored. Arguably, it is the one that holds most bearing on the individual’s perception of whether or not the “system is rigged” and what must be done to amend it. In the U.S. military, unequal opportunity or treatment is seen as a pivotal factor in recruits’ propensity to radicalize. A general perception of disparity, unfairness, and lack of opportunity can serve as the trigger that spurs people into action.

The Middle East and Latin American drug transit countries, such as Mexico and Colombia share a common theme: terrorist widespread recruitment through radicalization achieved through the advancement of opportunities the government has shirked. Through an analysis of Middle Eastern countries, and Mexico and Colombia, this study attempts to compare what social factors closely tied to inequality play a heavy role in setting the stage for radicalization of individuals. Three overarching factors and their interactions are proposed and measured in each case: economic inequality, level of government authoritarianism (or repressive policy), and external support for this repression.

Renowned economist, Thomas Piketty, maintains that the inequality that Western governments have contributed to create in the Middle East is a direct culprit of radicalization in the region. In Latin America, David Harvey maintained that the concentration of wealth and power in elites left the “disposable workforce [to] turn to other institutional forms through which to construct social solidarities and express a collective will.” The undermining of this outlet through the War on Drugs led to higher levels of recruitment and a fierce backlash of radicalization of drug-related actors. As “El Chapo” Guzman himself admitted recently, this was his and many others’ “only way out”. Similarly, ideological leaders of terrorist cells in the Middle East have found ripe radicalization grounds in environments of repression and inequality, bolstered by a disdain for an outside structure that supports the system. Like drug trafficking organizations in Latin America, radical factions like ISIS in the Middle East promised social respect, upward mobility, and economic fulfillment and has made good on many of those promises, while governments have been a source of repression and empty promises. This study aims to explore how these lacking social values, rooted in inequality, have contributed to radicalization and to shed light on what policies would be most effective in diffusing the threat of terrorism.