Social and political bases of terrorism.
It is important to keep in mind what constitutes the social and political bases of terrorism differ depending what philosophy is being advocated. Philosophy influences ideology; ideology influences change which constitutes and provokes social-political reform. The type of reform is strongly influenced by the groups' social or political agenda(s), its ideology and the decision whether or not to use terrorism as a modifier. Reform is the social and political premise of terrorism. This brief essay does not claim to do justice to the complexities of terrorism or its psychologies, but to rather attempt to state the argument that, reform is the social and political premise of terrorism. .
An example of social reform would be the on going socio-economic reform in northern Europe. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has strived for decades to establish its own social reform. The IRA's goal is to "remove the British Crown from Irish soil-(Toolis 6). This has caused tensions, to escalate during the process, and a bipolar society has evolved as a result. "Protestants and Catholics attend separate schools, churches, rarely intermarry, and live in separate neighborhoods for physical and psychological protection- (Bryne, Cater 1). These social differences can be found in virtually any society that is struggling for a social change. These differences spur conflicts and disparities which can be connected to competition between groups, institutional favoritism, stereotypes, or other factors that create partitions. In Northern Ireland these partitions evolve ethno territorial groups. "These groups raise the level of social mobilization and mobilize [evolve] into individual militant, politicized ethnic assertiveness terrorist cells- (Strimiska 1). The overall violent actions of these cells range from small-scale sporadic violence to single violent clashes between government agents and rebel civilians to large scale organized and sustained acts of terrorism.