The Rationale of Political Assassinations

Arie Perliger
1

The Rationale of Political Assassinations

Arie Perliger

THE COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER AT WEST POINT

www.ctc.usma.edu

February 2015

The views expressed in this report are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the 

Combating Terrorism Center, the US Military Academy, the Department of Defense or the US 

government.
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AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The idea for this project emerged from ongoing discussions with a dear colleague

and friend, Ami Pedahzur, who encouraged me to further study and explore the 

various dimensions of political assassinations. Hence, I am grateful to Ami for his 

support and encouragement. I would like also to thank Ami and Ms. Cassy Dorff for 

providing the CTC with the initial chronology of political assassinations, which was the 

basis for the development of a comprehensive data set.

It is also a pleasure to thank those with whom I have had the privilege to discuss 

the nature of political assassinations, and learn from their feedback. Most importantly, 

this project could not have been completed without the support of the Combating 

Terrorism Center and the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. I owe a great 

debt to those colleagues who spent considerable time and effort reading and 

commenting on drafts of this study; their critical assessment was invaluable. My 

gratitude to the external readers, Eran Zaidise and Muhammad Hafez, who provided 

invaluable feedback. I am also grateful to the reviews provided by my colleagues 

Gabriel Koehler-Derrick and Daniel Milton. My immense gratitude also to my research 

assistant, Limor Yungman, whose help with building the political assassinations’ 

dataset was essential to this project. Lastly, I have also benefited from my conversations 

with Bruce Hoffman, Cindy Jebb, AMB Michael Sheehan and Bryan Price. Their 

intellectual depth helped me in shaping some crude notions into more coherent ideas.

Arie Perliger 

West Point, New York
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Table of Content

Executive Summary......................................................................................................................4

Preface.............................................................................................................................................9

Chapter 1: The Context and Logic of Political Assassinations .............................................14

Chapter 2: The Landscape and General Trends of Political Assassinations.......................25

Chapter 3: Causes of Political Assassinations.........................................................................36

Chapter 4: Facilitators of Political Assassinations of Heads of State, Deputy Heads of 

State, Opposition Leaders and Legislators..............................................................................56

Chapter 5: The Consequences of Political Assassinations.....................................................75

Chapter 6: Concluding Remarks...............................................................................................86
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Executive Summary

The current study aims to improve our understanding of the causes and 

implications of political assassinations by utilizing a comprehensive data set and by 

employing quantitative analyses. The findings illustrate the trends that characterize the 

phenomenon and challenge some of the existing conventions about political 

assassinations and their impact.

This study is guided by the rationale that the logic of political assassinations is 

different from that of other manifestations of political violence. Hence, it is important to 

understand the unique factors that may encourage or discourage violent groups or 

individuals from engaging in political assassinations. Moreover, it seems reasonable to 

assume that these factors vary among different types of assassinations, because in most 

cases the characteristics of the targeted individual shape the nature and objectives of the 

assassination. Indeed, this study establishes that different processes trigger different 

types of assassinations, and that different types of assassinations generate distinct 

effects on the political and social arenas.

General Observations

Although the first two decades after World War II were characterized by a 

limited number of political assassinations, the number of such attacks has risen 

dramatically since the early 1970s, reflecting the emergence of new waves of terrorist 

groups, radical and universal ideologies operating on a global scale, and a growing 

willingness by oppressive regimes to use assassinations as a tool in their treatment of 

political opposition. Indeed, while most assassinations against government officials 

were perpetrated by sub-state violent groups, most assassinations of opposition leaders 

were initiated by ruling political elites or their proxies. This important observation 

supports the notion that a growing number of terrorist groups see assassinations as a 

legitimate and effective tool, and that one of the major obstacles for democratization is 

the vulnerability of political opposition. The study also finds that in many cases the 

perpetrators of political assassinations are the most experienced members of their 

groups, are government proxies, individuals with military training, or those with past 

service in law enfacement agencies or the military. Finally, this study establishes that, in 

contrast to some expectations, processes of democratization can sometimes facilitate 
5

assassinations under specific conditions rather than impede them. 

Causes of Assassinations

The research findings indicate that, in general, political assassinations are more 

probable in countries that suffer from a combination of restrictions on political 

competition and strong polarization and fragmentation. More specifically, states that 

lack consensual political ethos and homogeneous populations (in terms of the national 

and ethnic landscape) and include politically deprived groups, will face a decline in the 

legitimacy of the political leadership and the political system, and an increasing 

likelihood of direct attacks against political leaders. And since these issues tend to be 

present mainly in times of electoral processes or of actual violent strife, one should not 

be surprised that our findings indicate that election periods or periods characterized by 

a general increase in domestic violence are moments when a country is more 

susceptible to political assassinations. Another interesting finding is that the territorial 

fragmentation of a country is correlated with an increase in the number of 

assassinations. When a government loses control over some parts of a country to 

opposition groups, both sides are more willing to use assassinations to enhance their 

influence and to consolidate their status as the sole legitimate rulers of the polity.

When looking specifically at the facilitators of assassinations of heads of state, we 

can identify some unique trends. To begin with, the polities in which the head of state is 

most susceptible to assassination are authoritarian polities in which a leader enjoys 

significant political power but lacks regulated succession processes. This is true even 

more so in polities that also include oppressed minorities and high levels of political 

polarization. Therefore, non-democratic political environments that include leaders 

who are able to garner significant power, but in which the state lacks efficient 

mechanisms for leadership change following an assassination, provide more prospects 

for success in advancing political changes via political assassination as compared with 

democratic systems, in which it is clear that the elimination of the head of state will 

have a limited long-term impact on the sociopolitical order. 

Although heads of state represent what could be considered the crown jewel of 

political assassinations, lower-ranking political figures also face this threat. In this 
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study, I specifically looked into cases of attacks against legislators and vice heads of 

state. Attacks against the latter are fairly rare and are usually intended to promote 

highly specific policy changes (related to areas under the responsibility of the vice head 

of state) or to prevent the vice head of state from inheriting the head of state position. In 

addition, we find that assassinated vice heads of state are often victims of new political 

elites who have tried to eliminate possible challengers from the remains of a previous 

regime. Legislators, on the other hand, are most often victims of civil wars or similar 

violent domestic clashes in developing countries; in democracies they are almost never 

targeted. Hence, assassinations of legislators are almost always a result of national-level 

conflicts rather than local ones, contrary to what some may suspect. Lastly, legislators’ 

assassinations are rarely perpetrated to promote specific policies or to gain access to the 

political process. In other words, the assassination of legislators should be considered 

more as acts of protest against an existing political order than political actions that are 

intended to promote specific political goals.

One of the unique features of this study, among others, is its focus on 

assassinations of political figures who are not part of governing platforms. Unlike other 

types of assassinations, the state is typically a major actor in the assassination in these 

cases. Consequently, it should not surprise us that opposition leaders are more likely to 

be targeted in authoritarian systems or in weak democracies, as in these types of 

regimes the political environment provides a space for the emergence of an opposition 

while also providing the ruling elites tools and legitimacy for oppressive measures 

against a “successful” opposition. It is also clear that opposition leaders are more 

vulnerable during violent domestic conflicts, when the number of opportunities, and 

maybe also the legitimacy, to act against them are on the rise.

Overall, this study provides a nuanced and multilevel understanding of the 

factors that contribute to the probability of political assassinations. It also further 

confirms that distinct dynamics are in process in different types of assassinations.

Impact of Political Assassinations

The current study provides several important insights regarding the impact of 

political assassinations. In general, political assassinations seem to intensify prospects of 

a state’s fragmentation and undermine its democratic nature. The latter is usually 
7

manifested in a decline in political participation and a disproportional increase in the 

strength of the executive branch.

When I looked specifically at different types of assassinations, I was able to find 

significant variations among them. For example, assassinations of heads of state tend to 

generate a decline in the democratic nature of a polity and an increase in domestic 

violence and instability. They also increase economic prosperity, which sounds 

counterintuitive but may reflect the rise of a more open economic system after the 

elimination of authoritarian ruler. The assassination of opposition leaders has a limited 

impact on the nature of a political system but has the potential to lead to an increase in 

overall unrest and domestic violence. And assassinations of legislators are often 

followed by a decline in the legitimacy of the government and by public unrest 

(illustrated by growing anti-government demonstrations).

Policy Implications

This study illustrates that political assassinations are a constant feature in most 

polities. Thus, our ability to improve our understanding of political processes must also 

include a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of political 

assassinations. But how can the findings presented in this study help us to understand 

the potential role of policymakers in the occurrence or prevention of political 

assassinations?

To begin with, it is evident that governments can promote political and social 

conditions that may decrease the prospects of political assassinations. For example, 

while governments in polarized societies sometimes have the tendency to restrict 

political participation in order to prevent further escalation in intrastate communal 

relations, our findings indicate that this action will actually increase the probability of 

political assassinations. Moreover, in order for electoral processes to become a viable 

tool for promoting a productive and peaceful political environment, it is clear that they 

need to come after ensuring political grievances have been dealt with. Otherwise, 

electoral competition has the potential to instigate further violence, including the 

assassinations of political figures. The shaping of stable and regulated succession 

mechanisms is also highly important, especially in countries that are struggling to 

construct stable democratic institutions. Interestingly, it seems that while theories of 
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democratization have for a long time prescribed the creation of institutions as a first 

step to ensure wide representation, followed by stable routines and protocols, the 

opposite order may be more effective for the promotion of stability and eventually a 

liberal-democratic environment.

The findings in this study also indicate that more attention needs to be given to 

the safety of the political leaders during instances of violent domestic clashes or 

transitions to democracy. Opposition leaders are most vulnerable in the early stages of 

democratization, so the effort to facilitate a democratic environment must also include 

the creation of mechanisms to ensure the safety of opposition leaders. This in turn will 

enhance the legitimacy of political participation, reduce polarization and enhance 

political stability. Moreover, although civilian victims naturally attract most of the 

public attention during a civil war, this study highlights the need to evaluate how harm 

to political figures may be prevented, as this has significant potential to lead to further 

escalation of a conflict, especially when the assassinated figures are heads of state or 

opposition leaders.

This study’s findings also provide several practical insights for law enforcement. 

For example, legislators are almost never targeted in democratic countries, and in 

democratic environments sub-state groups are usually responsible for assassinations, 

rather than other actors such as lone wolves, for example. In addition, basic firearms are 

almost always the preferred weapons of assassins. The few cases in which more 

sophisticated weapons were used (such as car bombs) were mostly in developing 

countries rather than in established democracies (the Irish Republican Army’s 

operations in the United Kingdom being a known exception).
9

Preface

The evening of 4 November 1995 seemed no different from any other Saturday at

my family’s home in Carmiel, Israel. As was usual on Saturday evenings, my dad and I 

were watching Saturday’s Match, a TV sports program that summarized the results of 

the weekend’s Israeli soccer league matches. My mother was reading in bed and 

listening to radio coverage of a mass political rally organized by the Israeli Labor Party 

and several Israeli left-wing groups in support of the Oslo peace process.

Shortly after 9:30 p.m., my mom appeared in the living room. She was visibly 

agitated and shaken. There were reports of gunshots after the rally, and the Israeli 

public television channel quickly ended the sports program and shifted its coverage to 

Kings of Israel Plaza in Tel Aviv to report what was apparently an assassination 

attempt against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. As the minutes tensely progressed, more 

and more media outlets hinted at the severity of the event, until eventually the Israeli 

public television network confirmed that Prime Minister Rabin had been pronounced 

dead at Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv as a result of two gunshot wounds.

I can still vividly recall the rush of emotions as this dramatic news sank in. 

Beyond feelings of astonishment, sorrow and anger toward the perpetrator, my 

strongest feeling was that Israeli democracy had suffered a genuine blow that might 

affect its long-term stability and legitimacy. This was not because the Israeli political 

system lacked the mechanisms to overcome such a crisis in the immediate term. Instead, 

I was concerned that the assassination was a reflection of deeper and more sinister 

processes within Israeli society: of an ongoing decline in the legitimacy of the 

democratic process, and a weakening of a commitment to the idea that the elected 

government, subject to the appropriate checks and balances, is the ultimate source of 

authority. That night, shortly after the assassination, Shimon Sheves, Prime Minister

Rabin’s chief of staff, echoed these sentiments when he stated, “My country is gone.”1

I also remember my surprise at the magnitude of the effect of this event on many 

Israelis; most of them previously had had limited interest in politics. Hundreds of 

 

1 Shimon Sheves, “Missing Rabin,” News1, 5 November 2003, www.news1.co.il/Archive/003-D-3908-

00.html?tag=05-18-04 [Hebrew].
10

thousands of people participated in various memorial ceremonies, and thousands of 

youth camped out in public spaces across Tel Aviv, including at the site of the 

assassination, to jointly mourn the loss of the Israeli leader. For weeks, the television

channels continued special programming, and a monumental memorial initiative 

followed. In short order, it became almost impossible to find a town in Israel in which 

one of the major streets, schools or public facilities was not named after the late prime 

minister.

As the years have gone by, and with the collapse of the peace process and the 

outbreak of another round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, the discourse 

in Israel surrounding Rabin’s assassination has become increasingly polarized. On the 

right, a growing opposition has emerged against the idealization of Rabin’s personality;

this opposition includes a demand to focus the national memorial ceremonies on the 

immoral nature of political assassination rather than on Rabin’s legacy. Surprisingly, 

there has also been a growing criticism of the focus of the memorial ceremonies on 

Rabin’s personality from the left; however, in contrast with the political right, the left’s 

demand has been to shift the focus to Rabin’s legacy as a peacemaker. Against this 

backdrop, discussions that were taboo in the aftermath of the assassination have 

become increasingly prevalent in the public discourse. Some have even gone so far as to 

claim that Rabin’s assassin was single-handedly responsible for the collapse of the 

peace process.2In retrospect, the assassination of Rabin clearly altered the course of the 

peace process and perhaps even affected the results of the 1996 elections. Almost 

twenty years later, the impact of this event is also clearly still felt in the political and 

social dynamics in Israel.

The case of Rabin’s assassination reflects the immense potential effect of a single 

assassination on the political and social environment within a polity, as well as on 

bilateral processes. Thus it is not surprising that Appleton3 argues, “The impact of 

assassinations on America and the World is incalculable” and that Americans cite the 

assassination of John F. Kennedy as the crime that has had the greatest impact on 

 

2 President Bill Clinton, the main sponsor of the Oslo peace process, speculated that if Rabin had not been 

assassinated, peace would have been achieved in three years. See Atilla Shumfalbi, “Bill Clinton: If Rabin 

Would Have Not Been Assassinated There Would Be Peace Today,” YNET News, 14 September 2009, 

www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3805013,00.html [Hebrew]. 

3 Sheldon Appleton, “Trends: Assassinations,” Public Opinion Quarterly 64, no. 4 (Winter 2000): 495–522.
11

American society in the last hundred years.4 However, despite the apparently 

significant influence of political assassinations on political and social realities, this 

particular manifestation of political action is understudied and, as a result, poorly 

understood.

Figures 0.1 and 0.2, for example, present a comparison of the relative number of 

times that the term “political assassination” is mentioned in English-language books 

that were written between the years 1960 and 2008 in comparison with the word 

“terrorism” (fig. 0.1) and “insurgency” (fig. 0.2).5 As can be seen, despite the increasing 

attention to terrorism and insurgency in recent decades, political assassination as a 

subject of study remains almost totally neglected by practitioners and academics.

Figure 0.1: Studies on “Political Assassination” and “Terrorism” in the EnglishLanguage Corpus

Figure 0.2: Studies on “Political Assassination” and “Insurgency” in the EnglishLanguage Corpus

 

4 Zaryab Iqbal, and Christopher Zorn, “The Political Consequences of Assassination,” Journal of Conflict 

Resolution 52, no. 3 (June 2008): 385–400.

5 The graphs were created using Google Ngram software, which covers a sample of around 10 percent of 

the English-language corpus.
12

The picture remains the same when looking at academic studies specifically. As 

figure 0.3 shows, most academic articles focusing on political violence prefer to study

insurgency and terrorism, whereas “political assassination” remains at the margins of 

academic study of political violence.

Figure 0.3: Popularity of the Terms “Terrorism,” “Insurgency,” “Assassination”

and “Political Assassination” in Academic Articles (Based on Three Different 

Databases), 1960–2008

This marginality represents a crucial oversight, especially since political 

assassinations may be no less effective in advancing or producing political change than 

acts of terrorism or insurgency.

The current study aims to improve our understanding of political assassination 

by looking at its logic, its facilitators and its impact. The study begins with a short 

historical review of political assassinations and then provides a theoretical 

conceptualization of the phenomenon that examines the tactic’s logic, definitions and 

relevant classifications. A special focus is placed on the rationale of political 

assassinations in comparison with that of terrorism and insurgency. The second part of 

the study looks into the factors that facilitate political assassinations. By utilizing a 

typology of targets of assassinations, distinct theoretical frameworks are developed in 

order to uncover the factors that facilitate assassination against different types of targets 

as well as the characteristics that make specific political systems more vulnerable to 

political assassinations than others. This is followed with a section that focuses on the 

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000

Political Science Complete

PAIS

Worldwide Political Science Abstract

8393

1025

7983

1379

178

1246

488

134

811

67

71

314

Political Assassination Assassination Insurgency Terrorism
13

post-assassination phase; this section examines the impact of political assassinations on 

a state’s political, social and economic mechanisms and stability. The concluding 

chapter highlights the major theoretical and policy lessons of the study, as well as 

identifies some promising directions for further research.
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Chapter 1: The Context and Logic of Political Assassinations

Historical Context

As far as we know, political assassinations have been part of human social reality 

since the emergence of communal social frameworks, as the leaders of tribes, villages 

and other types of communities constantly needed to defend their privileged status. 

Thus it is not surprising that religious texts are strewn with references to political 

assassination. For example, according to the biblical narrative, after Eglon, the king of 

Moab, occupied areas belonging to the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin, one of the tribe’s

leaders, Ehud Ben-Gera, infiltrated the king’s palace and assassinated him. The ensuing 

confusion and chaos helped the tribe of Benjamin to defeat Eglon’s army.6In another 

famous biblical story, the ongoing clashes between the tribes of Israel and the kingdom 

of Hazor eventually ended with the assassination of Sisera (the military leader of 

Hazor). Sisera escaped from the Israeli forces following his defeat on the battlefield, and 

found what he thought was a refugee in Yael’s (a common Hebrew female name) tent. 

Although Yael invited Sisera to nap in her tent, her intentions were lethal. As he slept, 

she hammered one of the tent pegs into his temple.7

Assassinations were part of the political reality in the ancient world as well, and 

they feature prominently in the rise and fall of some of the greatest empires. While 

many people are familiar with the military victories of Alexander the Great, few today 

recall that his ascendance to power was facilitated by the assassination of his father (an 

innovative and talented politician in his own right), who was struck down by a 

bodyguard as he was entering a theater to attend his daughter’s marriage celebrations.8

In a somewhat more famous incident, Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE 

by Roman senators who increasingly feared that Caesar would revoke their privileges. 

In the previous years, Caesar had been able to use the support and loyalty of the army 

in order to become the sole consul and dictator for life (according to the Roman 

constitution, dictators were allowed to rule for no more than six months), as well as to 

nominate himself as imperator and pontifex maximus (the head of the state religion). 

The assassination eventually led to the formal end of the republic, as Caesar’s adopted 

 

6 Bible (Old Testament), Book of Judges, chapter 3.

7 Bible (Old Testament), Book of Judges, chapters 4–5.

8 David M. Lewis, “The Fourth Century BC,” in The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 6 (1994), 374. 
15

son (and grandnephew) Gaius Octavius nominated himself emperor.9

In some instances, political assassinations were used not just to eliminate specific 

leaders or policies, but also in an attempt to instigate revolutionary dynamics. For 

example, the Sicari were a group of Jewish zealots active at the time of Roman rule of 

Palestine (66 to 73 CE) who called for violent struggle against the Roman Empire in 

order to regain Jewish political independence. One of their main tactics was political 

assassination, which aimed to deter the moderate Jewish leadership from cooperating 

with the Roman rulers. The Sicari usually attacked their targets in broad daylight, in 

crowded places, and during festivals, when the masses gathered in Jerusalem. The 

assassins would mingle with the crowd, approach their target, and stab him with a 

short dagger kept concealed in their clothing. They would then disappear into the 

crowd. The group was finally eliminated after the Romans were able to suppress the 

Jewish rebellion around 73 CE.10

In many of these cases of political assassination, which occurred in a variety of 

locations and cultures, the elimination of the head of a polity seems to have had a 

substantial effect on the political course of the polity or empire. The impressive impact

of such assassinations seems to be a result of both the unique structure of the 

international system at the time and also of the absolute power held by most rulers. 

Thus, the lack of mechanisms that could permit an effective political adjustment to such 

events led, in many cases, to fairly chaotic situations that demanded substantial time 

until stability was restored. Some types of assassinations however, seem to have had a 

lesser effect. The assassination campaign of the Sicari against Jewish leaders (but not 

heads of state), for example, generated a limited impact. This illustrates not just the 

broad character of political assassinations but also the variation that may exist in their

effects on political processes.

The feudal political order that emerged in Europe during the Middle Ages seems 

to have made political assassinations less attractive. This seems to be because the 

potential of any single assassination to lead to a significant political change was limited 

 

9 Lucius Annaeus Florus, Epitome de T. Livio Bellorum omnium annorum DCC Libri duo [Epitome of Roman 

History], date unknown, section 2.9.

10 Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009),

4–8.
16

under the feudal structure. Consequently, while short-term personal benefits may have 

been yielded as the result of an assassination, rarely did the result come in the form of 

structural changes of the political or social system, or of changes to the prevailing 

norms and policies. Indeed, scholars tend to agree that political assassinations in 

medieval Europe were relatively rare, and those that occurred were trigged mainly by 

political schisms within the ruling echelons.11 Moreover, due to limited documentation, 

some of the most famous events lack definitive proof of being true cases of 

assassination. For example, William II, the king of England, died in 1100 while hunting 

after being shot with an arrow by one of his own men, the nobleman Walter Tirel. It 

remains unclear, however, if this was a deliberate killing. The fact that the injured king 

was left to die in the forest while his brother Henry rushed to Winchester (to secure the 

royal treasury) and then to London, where he was crowned within days, before an 

archbishop could arrive, has convinced some historians that this was a deliberate 

assassination.12 But it is still unclear if Henry exploited an opportunity or if he was 

involved in the “accident.” In a similarly vague case, Pope Benedict XI died suddenly 

only several months after he had assumed the role of pope, in what many assumed was 

an assassination by poison. Upon his death, the papacy was moved from Rome to 

Avignon, which greatly enhanced French influence on the affairs of the Roman Catholic

Church and caused the church to experience significant internal divisions.13

Information about political assassinations outside Europe before the modern era 

is fairly scarce. Nonetheless, several events and groups are worth mentioning. Among 

them are the Assassins, a group that could be described as a more modern Islamic 

version of the Sicari. They were a collective of Shi’i Ismailis active from the 11th to the 

13th centuries who engaged in campaigns of assassinations against political and 

religious leaders of rival groups and communities, mostly those who sought to extract 

influence on or oppress the Ismaili community of believers.14 Many of their 

assassinations involved infiltrating hostile territory, assimilating and waiting for an 

opportunity to kill the targeted political or religious leader. The group’s influence 

 

11 Bruno S. Frey, “Why Kill Politicians? A Rational Choice Analysis of Political Assassinations,” (working 

paper, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, 2007), 

ehttp://ssrn.com/abstract=990275. 

12 Frank Barlow, William Rufus (UK: Methuen London, 1983), 421.

13 Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, vol. 7 (Dublin, 1866). See excerpt 

at www.bartleby.com/210/7/076.html.

14 James Wasserman, The Templers and the Assassins (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 2001).
17

eventually declined, and it disappeared following the Mongol invasion of the Middle 

East in the mid-13th century. Other assassinations worth mentioning outside the 

European context in the pre-modern era are the assassination of the Grand Khan 

Sidibala in 1323 (the only Chinese head of state to be assassinated during that country’s 

long history) and that of the Persian head of state Shah Nader in 1747 by his 

bodyguards as a part of a wider conspiracy plotted by his nephew Adil Shah, who 

opposed Nader’s tendency to engage in military campaigns that put a significant 

financial burden on the Persian Empire.15

However, instead of seeing a continued decline in the usage and importance of 

assassinations, the last two centuries have in many ways seen the return of political 

assassinations to the main stage. It is not just that very few countries have been immune 

to assassinations, but a growing number of state and sub-state actors have attempted to 

use this tactic. A basic survey of the data collected for this study shows that more than 

130 countries have experienced at least one political assassination in the last sixty years. 

Some of these attacks were perpetrated by common actors in the terrorism landscape 

such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Hezbollah and Euskadi Ta 

Askatasuna (ETA), while other were carried out by less familiar organizations or by 

individuals, such as John F. Kennedy’s assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald. It seems 

also that no small number of assassinations have been sponsored or facilitated by state 

actors. Syria’s involvement in the assassination of Rafic Hariri, Lebanon’s prime 

minister, on 14 February 2005, is a case in point. Hence, it seems evident that 

understanding modern politics demands a better understanding of the causes and 

implications of political assassinations. But before that, the logic of political 

assassination and its uniqueness in comparison with other types of sub-state political 

violence needs to be clarified.

The Logic of Political Assassination

As with other spheres of literature on political violence, two important 

consequential characteristics are noticeable in the literature on political assassinations.

The first is the lack of consensus regarding its definition; the second is the limited 

number of attempts to distinguish its rationale and impact from those of other types of 

 

15 Gerhard Falk, Assassinations, Anarchy and Terrorism (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2012), 

69.
18

political violence. In this study, I would like to adopt an alternative, reverse approach. 

Thus I will try to uncover the logic of the phenomenon first, and then use that logic to 

devise a clear conceptualization.

In the most basic sense, political assassination is about promoting or preventing 

political, social or economic changes related to the collective. Although some may claim 

that assassinations during coups d’état or assassinations initiated by figures in a polity’s 

elite are actually manifestations of personal struggles, I argue that these kinds of 

assassinations are ultimately about the nature of the government or regime and as a 

result affect the collective. Why are these changes promoted via the killing of specific 

individuals and not by other means? Several options may be suggested: The 

perpetrators may believe that assassination is the fastest and most effective way to 

promote their desired changes, in comparison with other viable alternatives (whether 

violent or not). Second, the perpetrators may believe that other alternatives are not 

viable. Thus, even if they prefer other methods of political activism, those methods may 

not be available for operational or logistical reasons, and hence the perpetrators may be

forced to consider the option of assassination. Finally, the perpetrator may assume the 

targeted individual has direct responsibility for his inability to promote or prevent 

changes in the collective’s political and social sphere. Thus, the perpetrator sees the 

elimination of the specific targeted person as crucial stage in carrying out his or her 

agenda. (Ben-Yehuda sees this kind of act more as a “revenge and warning signal”).16

Regardless of the exact reason, in all cases the perpetrator assumes the existence of a 

causal relationship between the act of assassination and the ability, or the potential, to 

advance or prevent particular policies.17

With this background in mind, the conceptual gaps between political 

assassinations and other types of political violence can be addressed more clearly. 

Terrorism is as an act of psychological warfare in which a group utilizes violence to 

manipulate the way the public perceives specific political issues or political conflicts, in 

the hope that a population will pressure its government to concede to the terrorists’ 

demands. In more rare cases, the terrorists’ violence is aimed directly at the political 

 

16 Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Political Assassinations by Jews (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1993), xxi. 

17 Of course, some assassins of political figures are mentally ill, or are motivated by feelings of revenge or

other personal sentiments. Their acts are not political assassinations in the context of this study, since 

they lack the political context.
19

echelon, again to exert pressure for the promotion of their political goals. In both cases, 

terrorist violence is a medium that allows groups to communicate a political message to 

the public and to policymakers in an effort to hopefully create mass (or elite) support 

for political change. Part of this message includes an exemplification of what the costs 

are of not conceding to the terrorists’ demands.18 As Rapoport emphasizes: “At most 

assassination involves a conspiracy, terrorism requires a movement.”19 The movement 

Rapaport mentions is to be formed (indoctrinated and recruited) via messages 

produced by a violent terrorist campaign.

The rationale for insurgency is based on the gradual formation of an alternative 

political mechanism that will eventually replace an existing government. Hence, 

insurgent groups try to monopolize their control of specific peripheral territory, create a 

state-like framework (that will engage in tax collection, civilian services, etc.) and then 

gradually expand it and enhance their military capabilities until they are able to topple 

and replace the existing regime.20

Political assassination is a different breed of political violence than terrorism and 

insurgency. But two important clarifications are necessary before presenting its 

rationale. First, it should be noted that in most cases assassination is more costly (in 

terms of preparations, training, planning, etc.) than conventional insurgent or terrorist 

attacks against random targets.21 This is mainly a result of assassinations’ natural 

complexity (the need to locate and gain access to a secured target). Therefore, the 

decision to perpetrate an assassination could not be considered a result driven merely

by tactical decisions of the group or individual. There are inherent characteristics, and 

an internal logic, involved in assassinations that convince a group to employ it instead 

of other potential tactics of political violence. Second, in many cases groups will engage 

both in conventional terrorism or insurgency and assassinations. This doesn’t mean that 

 

18 For further discussion on the rationale of terrorism see, for example, Gordon H. McCormick, “Terrorist 

Decision Making,” Annual Review of Political Science 6 (June 2003): 473–507; Andrew Kydd and Barbara 

Walter, “The Strategies of Terrorism,” International Security 31, no. 1 (Summer 2006): 49–80.

19 Ben-Yehuda, Political Assassination by Jews, 53.

20 For further discussion on the rationale of terrorism see, for example, Bard O’Neill, Insurgency and 

Terrorism: From Revolution to Apocalypse, (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005), 15–38; Ian Beckett,

Modern Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies (New York: Routledge, 2001). 

21 It should be emphasized that this refers to the tactical level (when comparing assassination attacks to 

other types of violent attacks perpetrated by sub-state groups).
20

conceptually distinguishing among them is not important or that the logic of these 

phenomena is the same. This is similar to the manner in which a political group will 

sometimes be engaged in both terrorism and electoral politics, despite the clear 

distinction between these two types of political activity.

The logic of political assassination is based on the perception that by eliminating 

a particular individual who has political power, it is possible to achieve political 

changes (or shorten the path to these changes or to “victory”) without necessarily 

affecting the mind-set of the public or policymakers, controlling territory, or 

challenging the physical power of an existing regime directly (although all of these may 

accompany an assassination).22 For that reason, terrorist or insurgent groups that feel as 

though other tactics have failed or are not effective enough in amassing mass support, 

and that are experiencing dwindling resources, may resort to political assassinations.23

Similarly, regimes that are facing challenges controlling territories or garnering public 

support against a determined opposition may have a growing incentive to take the 

route of assassinations to counter the threat posed by their political rivals.

At least at first glance, political assassination provides several advantages over 

conventional campaigns of terrorism or insurgency. Since assassination tries to bypass 

the dimension of attrition that exists in other tactics, and instead tries to achieve 

immediate effects, it does not always demand a significant investment in garnering 

popular support, or the creation of extensive recruitment mechanisms to exploit that

support. It also avoids (in most cases) the need to directly confront superior armed 

forces, and as a result demands fewer operational resources (in the long term). Finally, 

in terms of effectiveness, both practically and symbolically, the killing of an important 

political figure may be more effective than conventional attacks in promoting political 

instability and in exposing the vulnerability of an existing regime.

After clarifying the logic of political assassination, we can proceed to 

 

22 See, for example, the collapse of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation 

Organization after the assassination of Rabin, or the assassination of Anwar Saddat in 1981, after which

Islamic Jihad in Egypt thought that the assassination would spark a popular rebellion that would then 

lead to the overthrow of the entire Egyptian regime.

23 See, for example, the Stern Gang assassinations in Palestine, as well as ETA’s assassination of Miguel 

Ángel Blanco Garrido in 1997. In both cases, loss of support and dwindling resources led the 

organizations to experiment with assassinations.
21

conceptualize it. Based on the logic above, a definition of political assassination should 

include three elements. First, the target is an individual who is part of the leadership of 

a group that operates within the political sphere in order to promote a specific ideology

or policies. She or he need not necessarily be an elected official or member of the three 

branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial), as leaders of opposition 

organizations or social movements may also try to promote political changes without 

formally being part of the government. Second, the perpetrator’s goal is a political one; 

thus the assassination aims at promoting or preventing specific policies, values, 

practices or norms pertaining to the collective’s way of life. Third, the act includes 

actual direct or indirect action that leads to the death of the targeted individual. Hence 

we can define a political assassination as “an action that directly or indirectly leads to 

the death of an intentionally targeted individual who is active in the political sphere, in 

order to promote or prevent specific policies, values, practices or norms pertaining to 

the collective.”24

After establishing a definition, we can begin to identify different types of 

political assassinations, and develop a theoretical framework that can help explain the

causes and implications of these events.

Typologies of Political Assassinations

Most of the studies that provide a historical review of political assassinations also 

strive to introduce some classification of the phenomenon. Most of them seem to focus 

on the motivations of the perpetrators. Ben-Yehuda,25 for example, differentiates among

(a) acts that are revolutionary in nature, and aim at changing the existing sociopolitical 

order; (b) acts that aim at preserving the status quo and are usually perpetrated by elites 

or the existing government; and (c) assassinations perpetrated as part of an intrastate 

communal clash, usually when different ethnic or religious communities compete for 

power. Although useful for understanding the strategic context of an assassination, 

Ben-Yehuda’s classification ignores the important distinction between motivation and 

desired results (categories A and B) and context (category C).

 

24 Even assassinations that some consider to be revenge attacks (such as Israel’s assassinations of Abbas 

Musawi, Hezbollah’s leader, and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’ leader) are included in this definition,

since they are parts of ongoing political conflicts and were aimed to affect the political capabilities of a 

political actor. 

25 Ben-Yehuda, Political Assassination by Jews, chapter 2.
22

A more elaborate motivation-based classification was used by different scholars 

in a series of studies published mainly in the 1970s.26 They differentiate among five 

types of political assassinations: (a) elite substitution, the assassination of a political 

leader in order to replace him or her, with a limited intention to change the 

sociopolitical order; (b) tyrannicide, the assassination of an absolute, oppressive ruler, in 

order to replace him or her with a less repressive and more rational leader; (c) terrorist 

assassination, the mass and indiscriminate killing of political figures, usually as part of a 

revolutionary dynamic; (d) anomic assassination, the assassination of a political figure for 

“private” reasons (including mentally ill assassins who use the political dimension of 

the killing to justify their act); and (e) propaganda by deed, an assassination that attempts 

to promote and attract public attention to specific policy issue. As with Ben-Yehuda’s 

classification, this classification scheme has some limitations. Not only are the various 

categories are vague and not mutually exclusive, as there is a significant overlap 

between some of them (for example, categories A and C), something that may be 

acceptable when creating ideal types, but they also “confuse” motivation and other

components of the assassination (for example, the operational characteristics and 

motivation, as shown in category C).

Similar problems exist in Falk’s classification,27 in which he distinguishes among

(a) aristocratic assassination, which affects only the elite; (b) assassinations based on 

personal motives, which are triggered by personal hostility resulting from past relations 

or grievances; (d) assassinations for power, which are tools in a political power struggle; 

(e) religious assassinations, which are justified by using interpretations of religious texts; 

(f) assassinations motivated by nationalism against those perceived to be unpatriotic; 

and, finally, (g) diplomatic assassinations, which target foreign political figures. Here 

again, the categories confuse motives, types of targets, and consequences. The 

difficulties in forming motivational-based typologies may reflect the fact that although

the circumstances surrounding assassinations may be diverse, the primary goal of a 

political assassination remains constant, that is, to affect the political reality.

 

26 Flix Gross, “Political Violence and Terror in 19th and 20th Century Russia and Eastern Europe,” in 

Assassination and Political Violence, ed. James F. Kirkham, Sheldon G. Levy and William J. Crotty (New 

York: Praeger, 1970), 519–98; Joseph Bensman, “Social and Institutional Factors Determining the Level of 

Violence and Political Assassinations in the Operation of Society: A Theoretical Discussion,” in 

Assassination and the Political Order, ed. William J. Crotty (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), 345–88.

27 Falk, Assassinations, Anarchy and Terrorism.
23

Other typologies have focused more on the “how” than the “why.” Machiavelli, 

for example, differentiated between “preparations” and “executions.” Based on this 

framework, Ben-Yehuda provides four categories based on modus operandi:

28 (a) 

preplanning, deliberations about whether an assassination should be perpetrated or not; 

(b) planning, cases in which an assassination was halted before the actual perpetration of 

the killing, but after the decision was made to conduct the assassination; (c) unsuccessful,

cases that, for operational or logistical reasons, did not end with the death of the target, 

and (d) successful, cases in which the act ended with the death of the targeted 

individual. It should be noted that the scopes of these categories are limited to the 

operational status of the act. Hence “success” is measured not by the ability of the 

perpetrator to promote his political goals via the assassination but by the actual 

successful completion of the killing act.

Finally, the prominence of psychological research in the field has also yielded 

some classifications based on the mental profile of the perpetrator. Falk, for example,29

identifies four types of assassins: (a) those who view their act as a probable sacrifice for 

a political ideal, who are thus usually willing to accept the harsh personal costs 

involved; (b) those who are triggered by egocentric needs for acceptance, recognition 

and status, who are thus inclined “to project personal motives on public objects and 

rationalize them in terms of some larger public interest”; (c) psychopaths, sociopaths 

and other individuals “who believe that the conditions of their lives are so intolerably 

meaningless and without purpose that destruction of society and themselves is 

desirable for its own sake,” who thus have a limited regard for accepted social norms 

and practices; and finally, (d) those who suffer from emotional and cognitive distortion 

that is reflected in hallucinations and delusions of persecution or grandeur, whose acts 

are thus usually inspired by some divine or mystical visions. It is unclear how to verify 

these categories via conventional research, as a researcher usually has no access to most 

assassins (and definitely not the resources to conduct clinical evaluation of their mental 

health).

In conclusion, it seems that the existing typologies of political assassinations are 

 

28 Ben-Yehuda, Political Assassination by Jews, 20–21.

29 Falk, Assassinations, Anarchy and Terrorism. 
24

suffering from some analytical deficiencies. As a result, and as will be shown later, most 

of the typologies utilized in the current study were developed with analytical clarity in 

mind and with the objective of identifying links among different categories of 

assassination.
25

Chapter 2: The Landscape and General Trends of Political 

Assassinations

Data Set Construction

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the causes and implications of 

political assassinations, a comprehensive data set was constructed specifically for this 

study. The data set, which documents political assassinations from the end of World 

War II to early 2013, was constructed using a variety of resources, including relevant 

academic books and articles, media data sets (especially LexisNexis and the New York 

Times archive) and online resources. Using the definition of political assassinations 

discussed in the previous chapter, 758 attacks by 920 perpetrators that resulted in the 

death of 954 individuals were identified (some attacks led to the death of multiple 

political leaders). We also created a control data set, which includes relevant 

information about all cases of country-year30 in which a political assassination didn’t 

occur. This allows us to measure more efficiently and accurately which causal factors 

and implications are the results of political assassinations.

The data set will be used in order to test different theoretical frameworks that

explain different types of assassinations (see chapters 3 and 4), as well to assess the 

political, social and economic implications of assassinations (see chapter 5). However, 

before delving into these analyses, it is important to present some general trends related 

to political assassinations.

Space and Time

Have processes such as globalization, modernization, the end of the Cold War, 

the proliferation of democratic practices and the growing emergence of transnational 

ideologies had any effect on the prevalence of political assassinations? Although it is 

difficult to provide a clear answer when looking at the yearly number of assassinations 

(see figure 2.1), it is clear that the phenomenon is not in decline.31

 

30 This concept describes a dataset in which a combination of a specific year and country is considered a 

single observation. For example, if zero assassinations occurred in the USA during the year 1990, the case 

or observation designated as USA-1990 will be coded 0 under the variable no. of assassinations. 

31 Although some may argue that another explanation is that reporting has become better over time, this 

seems not to be the case, for two reasons. First, there has been no significant growth since the 1970s in the 

yearly number of assassinations, which would be the case if the increase since the 1960s was a result of 
26

Whereas from the late 1940s until the late 1960s the yearly number of 

assassinations rarely exceeded single-digit numbers, since 1970 the opposite trend can 

be identified, with the number of attacks rarely staying in the single-digit area. Indeed, 

while the average number of assassination attacks between 1945 and 1969 was 5, it was 

almost three times higher (14.48) between 1970 and 2013. That is not to say that since the 

early 1970s the number of assassinations has stayed consistent, as three major peaks 

may be identified during that period: the early 1970s, during 1993 to 1994, and the mid2000s. These three time frames are characterized by dramatic political transitions in 

various regions, which were accompanied by violent clashes. More specifically, these 

regions are Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East in the 1970s; the Balkans 

and Israel-Palestine in the early to mid-1990s; and of course the Middle East and the 

Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) region in the mid-2000s. The possible relations between 

domestic and international conflicts and the volume of political assassinations will be 

examined further in the following chapters.

Figure 2.1: Number of Assassinations Per Year

An examination of the geographic distribution of the attacks (figure 2.2) makes it 

evident that they are not restricted to any single region. Some regions that are 

considered politically stable and economically prospering, such as Western Europe, as 

well as regions that are considered politically unstable, more prone to political violence 

 

improved reporting. (Moreover, some years experience a decline in the number of assassinations,

although the overall trend is stable). Second, not as with other types of manifestations of political 

violence, assassinations, by their nature, enjoy more reliable reporting. After all, it is more difficult to

conceal an attack against a political figure than to conceal an attack against a random target.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

19451948195119541957196019631966196919721975197819811984198719901993199619992002200520082011
27

and economically weak, such as sub-Saharan Africa, have experienced substantial levels 

of political assassinations.

Figure 2.2: Geographic Distribution of Assassinations

The only regions that seem to be relatively marginally affected are Oceania and,

to lesser extents, North America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. In the first two 

cases, this seems to be a result of the limited number of polities comprising these 

regions, which has affected the accumulated number of assassinations they have 

experienced. In the last two cases, this may be because they are mainly composed of 

highly oppressive regimes, with significant separations between the political echelons

and the public. This separation may have resulted in limited opportunities for 

assassinations, as well as limited opportunities for the emergence of significant 

opposition actors that could initiate such attacks. The fact that most assassinations in 

Eastern Europe (85 percent) occurred after 1995 seems to support these assumptions 

(figure 2.3). This also illustrates the importance of identifying regional trends over time 

and determining whether some regions were more vulnerable to assassinations during 

specific time periods.

Figure 2.3 shows that there are regional trends in the data. Assassinations were 

most frequent in Central America and Western Europe between the 1960s and 1980s, a 

period in which both regions were immersed in political turbulence (for example, El 

North America

6% Central America 

& Caribbean 

7%

South America 

9%

Southeast/East 

Asia 

5%

South Asia 

17%

Western 

Europe 

Eastern Europe 14%

5%

Middle East & 

North Africa 

20%

SubSaharan 

Africa 

13%

Russia & the 

Newly 

Independent 

States (NIS) 

3%

Australasia & 

Oceania 

1%
28

Salvador’s civil war; Nicaragua’s experience with the Contras and violent clashes 

between opposition movements and the government; Guatemala’s civil war) and 

suffered from the proliferation of violent sub-state organizations (in some European 

countries, the level of left-wing terrorist violence presented a real threat to the political 

stability, such as in Italy, West-Germany and Spain).

Figure 2.3: Regional and Periodical Distribution of Assassinations

In other regions, however, political assassinations have become dominant only in 

the last couple of decades. In South Asia, 76 percent of assassinations have been

perpetrated after 1985, possibly a consequence of the growing instability in the Af-Pak 

region during and after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. And as mentioned earlier, 

more than 85 percent of assassinations in Eastern Europe have been perpetrated after 

1995, the start of the transition to democracy in most Eastern European countries, which 

in many cases was accompanied by growing ethnic tensions and political instability. In 

some regions, however, such as North America and Southeast Asia, the numbers have 

remained more or less consistent, which may be a result of the relative stability of some 

of the region’s governments since 1945. The importance of these variables in 

determining the probability of political assassinations will be tested more rigorously 

later in this study.

Tactics and Targets

One of the enduring perceptions among students of terrorism is that the tactics 

utilized by violent sub-state groups have not changed dramatically in the last century. 

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50 1945-1955 1956-1965

1966-1975 1976-1985

1986-1995 1996-2005

2006-2013
29

In other words, the gun and the bomb are still the main weapons used by terrorist and 

insurgent groups engaging in hit-and-run attacks.32 Is this also the case in the realm of 

political assassinations? Or does the need to kill fairly guarded and specific targets push 

assassins to use more sophisticated tactics? The answer seems to be negative, according 

to figure 2.4, which illustrates the distribution of attacks by weapon type.

Figure 2.4: Distribution of Assassinations by Weapons’ Sophistication

As can be seen in figure 2.4, a pistol, a sniper rifle, a light automatic weapon (by 

far the most popular weapon) or an automatic rifle were used in 72 percent of the 

attacks; if we add the 15 percent of attacks that were perpetrated using bombs 

(including car bombs), we find that the bomb and the gun were used in 87 percent of 

assassinations.33 The rest of the attacks were perpetrated using “cold” weapons, suicide 

bombs and missiles.

The distribution of weapons by their effective range shows similar patterns (see 

 

32 See Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 119.

33 It should be noted that decisions regarding the choice of weapon and tactic may also be influenced by 

organizational resources. Although this analysis of weapons’ costs takes that factor into consideration on 

some level, it should also be noted that since most of the weapons that are used for assassinations are not 

overly sophisticated or costly, this factor seems to have a limited impact.

Blunt 

object/knife

7%

Pistol 

13%

Submachine gun 

46%

Automatic 

rifle/assault rifle

11%

Rifle (sniper) 

2%

Missile (anti-tank 

or surface-to-air) 

1% Bomb 

9%

Car bomb or 

bomb under a 

car (IRA style) 

6%

Suicide bomb 

5%
30

figure 2.5). But it is also possible to interpret figure 2.5 as an attempt by perpetrators to 

balance effectiveness and costs or risks. Although perpetrators would probably prefer 

to use weapons that make it possible to minimize risk and maximize success (such as 

long-range weapons; for instance, a sniper rifle), these weapons are also more 

expensive, both financially and in terms of the operational knowledge and experience 

required to use them. (To illustrate, although pistols and submachine guns cost between 

$150 and $500, a missile costs between $5,000 for an SA7 and $38,000 for a Stinger.)

Hence, it is understandable that perpetrators often settle for cheaper weapons, which 

although less effective in terms of ensuring the death of a target (and demanding 

greater proximity to a target), still provide a reasonable chance of ensuring the 

perpetrators’ survival and success.

Figure 2.5: Distribution of Assassinations by Weapons’ Effective Range (in 

Meters)

A related question that may further clarify the rationale behind perpetrators’ 

selection of tactics is whether the perpetrators fit the tactic to their target. In other 

words, are they willing to absorb more costly operations in the case of a particularly 

prestigious target? In order to answer this question, we must first examine the 

distribution of assassinations by type of targets (see figure 2.6).

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Knife/Blunt Object/Poison (requires contact with the victim) 

Suicide Bomber 

Grenade (requires accurate throw; kill radius = 5 meters) 

Pistol/Unknown Gun Type (50 meters) 

Submachine Gun (30-200 meters) 

Automatic Rifle/Assault Rifle (300 meters) 

Sniper/Hunting Rifle (1,000 meters) 

Surface-to-Air Missile (3,700 meters) 

"Bomb" 
31

Figure 2.6: Distribution of Assassinations by Targets

As can be seen, three major types of targets lead the list: heads of states; leaders 

of political movements/parties; and parliamentary officials, deputies and senators; these 

are followed by ministers, secretaries, and cabinet-level officials; national/federal-level 

judges; and diplomats, ambassadors and consuls. The high number of parliamentary

members in comparison with the relatively low number of heads of state and leaders of 

political parties or movements makes it safe to say that the latter two types are in reality 

the main targets of political assassinations “per capita.” As will be elaborated on later, 

this can be explained by the incomparable symbolic and psychological effect that an 

assassination against a head of state can generate. Of all types of political assassination, 

the direct elimination of the head of a movement or a government can have the most 

significant impact. But is this understanding also manifested in the operational 

characteristics of these attacks? The answer is mostly negative, as no significant 

differences were found between the tactics and weapons used in attacks against heads 

of state and leaders of political movements and those used against other types of 

targets.

17%

3%

14%

21%

10%

4%

4%

5%

4%

18%

Heads of state 

Vice heads of state 

Ministers, secretaries, cabinet 

level officials 

Parliamentary officials, deputies, 

senators 

Diplomats, ambassadors, consuls 

National/federal-level judges, 

justices, magistrates 

Others

Governor/regional executives 

Political candidate 

Leaders of political 

movements/parties 
32

Somewhat surprisingly, political candidates (political figures who are actively 

running for office) constitute just 3 percent of the targets, despite the fact that, in many 

cases, they represent a potentially significant threat to the existing sociopolitical order. 

This may indicate that regimes and political actors have a tendency to underestimate 

the threat from rival leaders until those leaders have proved themselves in the electoral 

process (at least once) or are able to mobilize significant popular support. In other 

words, opposition leaders need to “prove” that the benefits involved in their 

assassination outweigh the costs. The ability to garner electoral support symbolizes 

these leaders’ transition from potential threats to actual ones, who in turn “deserve” to 

be targeted.

Perpetrators

Political violence is a phenomenon of collective action, as most of the relevant 

studies tend to illustrate that lone wolves form a minority among the perpetrators of 

such violence.

34 Nevertheless, owing to some famous lone wolf assassins (Lee Harvey 

Oswald, James Earl Ray, Sirhan B. Sirhan) some people tend to assume that the portion 

of lone wolves among perpetrators of political assassinations is relatively higher than 

that which can be found among the perpetrators of other acts of politically motivated 

violence. The numbers do not tend to support that claim, as just 8.9 percent of the 

perpetrators of assassinations may be described as lone wolves. Moreover, at least 50

percent of the perpetrators were affiliated with a known terrorist group. The rest were 

members of military or security forces (15.1 percent), ruling political parties (14.4

percent), opposition political parties (7.6 percent) or criminal organizations (6 percent).

The data set also illustrates that more than half of the assassins (51.3 percent) had 

been involved in criminal activities prior to the assassination. This may indicate that a

group usually prefers one of its veteran members to perform an assassination, probably 

because of the high stakes involved in these kinds of operations and the relatively high 

level of operational knowledge necessary to conduct them. In one extreme example, the 

leader of the Bangladeshi branch of Harkat Ul Jihad alIslami (HUJI), Mufti Abdul Anan, 

was revealed to have actively participated in assassination against Sheikh Hasina, the 

 

34 Ami Pedahzur, Arie Perliger and Leonard Weinberg, “Altruism and Fatalism: The Characteristics of 

Palestinian Suicide Terrorists,” Deviant Behavior 24, no. 4 (2003): 405–23.
33

leader of an opposition party in Bangladesh and the former Bangladesh prime minister, 

in August 2004. Also, because of the particular risks involved in these kinds of 

operations, groups may prefer to expose members who are already known to law 

enforcement agencies, thus sending them to conduct an assassination, rather than 

exposing members who are still unknown to law enforcement bodies (although this 

may be problematic, since the veteran members are often at higher risk of being under 

surveillance).

Finally, the use of veterans may also indicate that assassination is a tactic that is 

utilized mostly in the last stages of a violent struggle, when most members of a group

already have criminal records for their past involvement in violent operations. For 

example, the LTTE, which perpetrated at least twenty-two assassinations after 1981,

initiated almost 40 percent of its assassinations from 2007 to 2009 (eight attacks), as the 

pressure on the organization started to mount. Future studies focusing on the 

individual and group level of the phenomenon may be able to test these various

assumptions.

In terms of general demographic characteristics, the differences between 

assassins and “conventional” terrorists seem not to be substantial. As in most 

contemporary terrorist groups (and not as was seen in many of the European left-wing 

groups of the 1970s) a decisive majority (96.9 percent) of assassins are men and have 

been exposed to military or operational training before their involvement in an 

assassination. Although the exact identities of perpetrators are often unknown, we were 

able to establish that at least 27 percent of them were employed in the security industry 

and that at least 26 percent of them went through some kind of military training. We 

can assume that the real numbers are probably higher, considering the difficulty in 

gathering this data. This further confirms the earlier assumption that groups prefer to 

make use of veteran or better-trained members for these high-stakes operations.

Figure 2.7: Distribution of Assassinations by Perpetrators’ Ideology
34

Finally, it is very clear when looking at the stated or implied ideology of the 

perpetrators that there are no ideological streams that preclude themselves from 

engaging in political assassinations. Nonetheless, as can be seen in figure 2.7, ethnic

separatist groups, such as LTTE, ETA, Abu Nidal Organization and Armenian Secret 

Army of the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), are responsible for almost one-third of the 

attacks. This seems to correspond with the tendency of many of the anti-colonial groups 

active after World War II, and contemporary anti-occupation groups, to engage in direct 

attacks against representatives of the occupying regimes. Other ideological streams are 

distributed less equally along the years, which correspond with terrorism’s general 

historical trends. For example, until the 1970s, the proportion of left-wing attacks was 

higher than its overall proportion (by almost one third), and just about 6 percent of 

assassinations before 1970 were perpetrated by groups with a religious ideology. 

Indeed, the words of some prominent leaders of religious groups emphasize that the 

growth of religious terrorism was accompanied with a growing understanding by the 

leaders of these organizations of the potentially immense utility of political 

assassinations.35 For example, in a famous al-Sahab propaganda video titled Thou Art 

Held Responsible Only for Thyself, which was released on 3 June 3 2011, Adam Gadahn 

states:

“It is important that we weaken our cowardly enemy’s will to fight by targeting 

influential public figures in the Crusader and Zionist government . . . we must 

remember that these are people who have no problem with thousands of their citizens 

 

35 While the data in this regards is not complete, around three-quarters of Muslim assassins are Sunni and 

the rest Shi’i.

Ethnic/Separatist

29%

Anarchist/Antigovernemnt

15%

Liberal

1%

Religious 

17%

Right Wing

15%

Left Wing

23%
35

and soldiers dying in the wars they start and profit from, so long as it is not they 

themselves who are in harm’s way. But when they start to feel the heat you will find 

them losing their zeal for the continuation of the war. And getting to these criminals 

isn’t as hard as you might think. I mean, we’ve seen how a woman knocked the Pope to 

the floor at Christmas mass and how Italian leader Berlusconi’s face was smashed 

during a public appearance. So it’s just a matter of entrusting the matter to Allah, then 

choosing the right time, the right place and the right method.”

36

Similarly, Usama bin Ladin understood the potential benefits of assassinations.

In a message entitled “A Message to the Umma in General and to our Muslim Brothers 

in Iraq in Particular,” which he released on 6 May 2004, he promised the future 

assassins financial prizes:

“You know that the United States offered great prizes for whoever would kill 

those engaged in jihad in God’s cause. God willing, we in the al-Qa'ida Organization 

are committed to offering a prize amounting to 10,000 grams of gold to whoever will 

kill the occupier Bremer, his deputy, the commander of the US troops, or his deputy in 

Iraq . . . It is today continuing its [word replaced with asterisks] role against the ummah. 

Therefore, whoever kills Kofi Annan, the head of his mission to Iraq, or his 

representatives, like Lakhdar Brahimi, will have the same prize, which is 10,000 grams 

of gold. There will be a prize of 1,000 grams of gold for whoever kills a military figure 

or civilian from the veto masters, such as the Americans or British, and 500 grams of 

gold for whoever kills a military figure or civilian from the slaves of the General 

Assembly in Iraq, such as Japan and Italy . . .”

37

These two examples confirm not just the growing understanding of the 

operational and symbolic benefits of assassinations among groups operating in the 

contemporary militant-religious landscape but also the growing “globalization” of 

assassination attacks, as UN leaders as well as foreign diplomats, contractors and 

military leadership based in foreign territories become no less legitimate targets than 

local political figures.

 

36 The video is accessible at www.youtube.com/watch?v=qenLwnaUSs8 (see minute 21:08).

37 See IntelCenter Words of Osama Bin Laden, Volume 1, 99, pp. 38-43.
36

Chapter 3: Causes of Political Assassinations

Past and Current Explorations of Political Assassinations

As noted in the preface, the literature on political assassinations is dated, scarce 

and lacking a systematic examination of the causes and implications of such events. In 

general, the existing literature can be divided into three major groups. The first includes 

historical studies that attempt to uncover the circumstances of one or a selected group 

of assassinations.38 In some cases, the historical review is accompanied by an effort to 

provide theoretical and analytical insights via specific disciplinary lenses. Falk and BenYehuda, for example, complement their historical reviews of assassinations with an 

analytical framework that is based largely on existing sociological literature,39 while 

Clarke provides a psychological-mental classification of the assassins.40

The second group looks into the effect of political assassinations on various 

societal processes. Berkowitz and Macauley, for example, examined the effect of 

Kennedy’s assassination on crime rates in the United States;

41 Orren and Peterson also 

tried to assess the impact of Kennedy’s assassination, but they examined how the 

assassination shaped political socialization (more specifically, how parents explain 

political events such as an assassination to their children).42 In more recent study, 

Yuchtman-Yaar and Hermann tried to evaluate how the assassination of Israeli prime 

minister Rabin affected Israelis’ perceptions and attitudes toward acts of political 

participation.43 As these examples illustrate, most of these studies have adopted a 

narrow approach focusing on a specific assassination or a related social issue. Even 

Iqbal and Zorn, who used a more systematic approach and a data set of political 

 

38 Franklin L. Ford, Political Murder from Tyrannicide to Terrorism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University 

Press, 1985); James W. Clarke, American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics (New Jersey: Princeton 

University Press, 1982); Ludo De Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba (London: Verso Books, 2001); 

Mohamed Heikal, Autumn of Fury: The Assassination of Sadat (New York: Random House, 1983); Gerald L.

Posner, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and The Assassination of JFK (New York: Anchor, 1993); Prakash A.

Raj, Kay Gardeko? The Royal Massacre in Nepal (Calcutta: Rupa, 2001).

39 Ben-Yehuda, Political Assassinations by Jews; Falk, Assassinations, Anarchy and Terrorism.

40 Clarke, American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics.

41 Leonard Berkowitz and Jacqueline Macaulay, “The Contagion of Criminal Violence,” Sociometry 34, no.

2 (1971): 238–60.

42 Karen Oren and Paul Peterson, “Presidential Assassination: A Case in the Dynamics of Political 

Socialization,” Journal of Politics, 29, No.2, (1967): 388–404.

43 Ephraim Yuchtman-Yaar, and Tamar Hermann, “The Latitude of Acceptance: Israeli Attitudes Toward 

Political Protest Before and After the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 42, no. 

6 (December 1998): 721–43.
37

assassinations, focused on just one type of assassination (that of heads of state) and a 

limited set of indicators of political stability.44

The third and last group focuses on the causes of political assassinations. 

Although individual-level explanations put significant emphasis on the proposed 

psychological pathologies of past perpetrators,45 macro-level explanations mostly 

examine the social and political conditions that facilitate political assassinations, 

emphasizing the variables related to political oppression, the existence or lack of 

alternatives (for violent means) to change state leadership and the level of strength of 

state powers to prevent or punish potential assassinations.46

Most of the studies mentioned earlier, although providing important insights 

and representing important progress toward a more systematic examination of political 

assassinations, seem to overlook the nuances existing in political assassinations.

Namely, these studies overlook the fact that different types of assassinations are 

probably triggered by different sets of structural and motivational factors and cannot be 

presumed a priori to generate a similar impact. For example, we can assume that the 

considerations that lead an individual to assassinate a member of parliament are 

probably different from the motivations that trigger the assassination of a head of state. 

After all, we know from other political realms that people shape their political behavior

based on the political sphere they want to influence (in the same manner that most 

individuals’ voting preferences in local elections are shaped by different considerations 

than the ones that shape their voting preferences in national elections).47 Applying a 

similar logic, we should not expect all assassinations to have the same impact on polity 

and society. The current study, then, strives to provide a more nuanced approach to the 

examination of the causes and effects of political assassinations, one in which the type 

of target plays an important role. In the following chapters, several theoretical 

frameworks for assessing the causes and implications of political assassination, both in 

general and of specific targets, will be presented and examined. It should be noted that 

since lone wolves consist of a small fraction of perpetrators (as noted in the previous 

 

44 Zaryab Iqbal and Christopher Zorn, “Sic Semper Tyrannis? Power, Repression, and Assassination since 

the Second World War,” The Journal of Politics 68, no. 3 (August 2006): 489–501.

45 Lawrence Z. Freedman, “Assassination: Psychopathology and Social Pathology,” Postgraduate Medicine 

37 (1965): 650–58; Sidney J. Slomich, and Robert E. Kantor, “Social Psychopathology of Political 

Assassination,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 30 (1969): 9–12.

46 Iqbal and Zorn, “Sic Semper Tyranis?”; Bruno S. Frey, and Benno Torgler, “Politicians: Be Killed or 

Survive,” Public Choice 156, no. 1–2 (July 2013): 357–86.

47 See, for example, Robert Morlan, “Municipal vs. National Election Voter Turnout: Europe and the 

United States,” Political Science Quarterly 99, no. 3 (Fall 1984): 457–70.
38

chapter), the majority of the theoretical frameworks here focus on group-level 

motivations and dynamics.

Facilitators of Political Assassinations: General Framework

Following the death of Juan Perón in July 1974, various Argentine militant 

groups (such as People’s Revolutionary Army, Montoneros and Argentinean Liberation 

Front) intensified their operations against the Argentine government as well as against 

each other. The growing political chaos was eventually exploited by the military in 

order to execute a coup and to appoint General Jorge Rafael Videla as the new 

president. The new junta government became infamous, owing it to its extensive use of 

oppressive measures against opposing political actors as well as for its aggressive 

foreign policy (such as the Falklands War). These turbulent times also included no less 

than eleven assassination attacks (including unsuccessful attempts). This staggering 

number is even more impressive considering the lack of assassinations in Argentina’s 

history before or after this period. The case of Argentina, as well as other similar cases, 

reflect the importance of contextual political and social processes such as regime 

change, political strife and political polarization, as well as economic factors, in 

facilitating a “friendly” environment for political assassinations. The rest of the chapter 

will try to provide more clarity regarding the facilitators of political assassinations.

In order to identify the factors that facilitate political assassinations, there is a 

need to distinguish between factors that are related to the stability and resiliency of a

political system (institutional variables) and factors that are related to the characteristics 

of a society or to particular circumstances (environmental variables). The first set of 

factors are those based on the rationale that some features of a political system make 

political assassination an effective or attractive tool in order to promote political 

changes or to topple an existing regime. The second set of factors is based on the 

assumption that, under particular social circumstances, political assassinations are a 

more attractive mechanism to promote political changes than other means. Figure 3.1 

details the two sets of variables.
39

Figure 3.1: Facilitators of Political Assassinations (General Framework)

Institutional Variables Type of Regime Competitiveness of the Executive/ Political System FragmentationEnvironmental Variables Civil War/Political Strife Elections Economic Conditions Past Assassinations

Regime Type

It seems almost intuitive to assume that regimes that are less effective in 

mitigating the potential impact of political assassinations would be more prone to suffer 

from these kind of attacks than regimes with better coping mechanisms. Strong 

democracies, for example, have mechanisms to prevent an assassination from causing 

significant political turbulence.48 Therefore, they may be an unattractive environment 

for potential assassins. However, not all democracies are created equal. Presidential 

democracies would seem to be more vulnerable than parliamentary democracies to a

perpetrator interested in affecting specific policy issue rather than promoting significant 

changes in the political system. There are several reasons for this. In the context of the 

assassination of a head of state, in most presidential systems the president has almost 

absolute power to shape the executive’s policies, which in turn reflect his 

administration’s goals and ideological views. Hence, removing him from office may 

have a direct effect on the policies promoted by the executive branch. Prime ministers, 

on the other hand, are subject not just to their party’s ideology and bureaucracy but also 

to constraints related to the demands and ideologies of other parties in their coalition. 

Thus, removing a prime minister may not necessarily change the overall policies 

advanced by a government as compared with a similar event in a presidential system. 

Moreover, the symbolic and psychological impact that the assassination of a state’s

president generates is likely to differ from that of the assassination of a prime minister, 

as the latter is not directly elected by the people but instead usually by party members,

and he or she usually has less direct executive power. (In a parliamentary coalition 

government, a prime minster may even have limited control over specific policy issues). 

 

48 Iqbal and Zorn, “The Political Consequences of Assassination.”

Political 

Assassination
40

To conclude, although some prime ministers may be so politically strong and influential 

that they have personified policies or a political ideology (Margaret Thatcher is one 

example), prime ministers in general enjoy less individual power and influence than 

executives in presidential systems.49

Similar logic may apply to other types of assassinations. Opposition leaders may 

be perceived as less threatening in parliamentary systems; even if they can gain political 

dominance in such systems, they will be limited by the inherent constraints that 

characterize coalition governments and by the fact that one party rarely gains full 

control of the political institutions. Assassinations of ministers also seem to be less 

attractive in parliamentary democracies, in which the ministers’ power is more limited 

than those in presidential systems. Ministers in parliamentary systems are usually party 

members, and their appointment is approved by the legislative and not just the 

executive branch of government. Moreover, their office’s policies are usually a reflection 

of negotiations between coalition parties and party leaders.

We may also assume that assassinations will be more prevalent in authoritarian 

regimes than in totalitarian ones.50 Although in both cases there is a lot of potential for 

political benefits if a ruler is eliminated (and limited alternative means for promoting 

policy changes), leaders in strong totalitarian regimes tend to be more isolated and well 

guarded, and therefore usually more difficult to target, as well as probably more 

effective in solidifying a succession mechanism (a separate variable that will be 

discussed later).51

 

49 Richard Heffernan, “Why the Prime Minister Cannot Be a President: Comparing Institutional 

Imperatives in Britain and America,” Parliamentary Affairs 58, no. 1 (January 2005): 53–70.

50 Linz characterizes authoritarian regimes as systems with limited mobilization, with significant 

constraints on political institutions and groups while the basis for legitimacy is focused on emotion, 

especially the identification of the regime as a necessary evil to combat social problems. Totalitarian 

systems are characterized by full control of the state over all aspects of public and private life, hence they 

are more extreme versions of authoritarianism in the sense that the power of the state is intensified and 

further intrusive. See Juan J. Linz, “An Authoritarian Regime: The Case of Spain,” in Cleavages, Ideologies 

and Party Systems, eds. Eric Allard and Yrjo Littunen (Helsinki: Academic, 1964); John A. Armstrong, The 

Politics of Totalitarianism. (New York: Random House, 1961); Karl D. Bracher, “The Disputed Concept of 

Totalitarianism,” in Totalitarianism Reconsidered, ed. Ernest A. Menze (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat 

Press, 1981) 11–33.

51 Gary W. Cox, “Authoritarian Elections and Leadership Succession, 1975–2004” (paper presented at 

APSA, Toronto: September 2009).
41

Empirical analyses provide support for the above assumptions. I used both the 

aggregate POLITY score and the separate democracy score from the POLITY IV data 

set52 in order to identify the types of regimes that experienced political assassinations in 

the years 1970 to 2014. As can be seen from figure 3.2, two types of regimes are 

particularly vulnerable to assassinations. The first are authoritarian regimes that are not 

totalitarian in nature, and the second could be described as non-liberal or procedural 

democracies (the high column above the category of “10” may be deceiving, as in terms 

of total numbers, most assassinations occur in regimes categorized between 4 and 8). In 

these types of political settings (non-liberal democracies and authoritarian regimes), the 

relative openness of the political environment seems to provide a space for the 

emergence of an effective opposition. Nonetheless, the limited commitment of the 

political elites of these systems to democratic-liberal values, and the existence of 

procedural mechanisms that prevent opposition forces from gaining significant political 

influence, create a gap between opposition actors’ expectations and their actual ability 

to affect the political processes, a situation that, as relative deprivation theory predicts, 

may incentivize political violence.53

Figure 3.2: Number of Political Assassinations by Type of Regime (POLITY Score 

-10=Fully Totalitarian; 10=Strong Liberal Democracy)

 

52 The Polity IV Project is coding authority characteristics of states in the world system for purposes of 

comparative or quantitative analysis. The Polity IV data set covers all major independent states in the 

global system from the period 1800 to 2013 (i.e., states with a total population of 500,000 or more in the 

most recent year; there are currently 167 countries). For more information, see 

www.systemicpeace.org/polityproject.html. 

53 For an introduction to relative depravation theory, see, Ted R. Gurr, Why Men Rebel (New Jersey: 

Princeton University Press, 1970).

0

5

10

15

20

-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

# of 

Countries Per 

Column

POLITY SCORE
42

The distribution based on the level of democracy (figure 3.3) seems to support 

these assumptions, as the majority of attacks have occurred in a variety of procedural 

democracies.

Figure 3.3: Number of Political Assassinations by Type of Regime (Democracy 

Score: 0=Non-Democratic; 10 = Strong Liberal Democracy)

In order to further validate these observations, a negative binomial model was 

utilized. The model confirmed that the distribution of POLITY scores among countryyears not suffering from assassinations is significantly different from the distribution 

presented in figure 3.2 (country-years experiencing assassinations). It also reflected that, 

in the first group, the level of democracy was higher (Wald=67.326***).

The findings also show that almost two-thirds of the assassinations that were 

perpetrated in democratic countries occurred in presidential or semi-presidential 

systems (64.7 percent) and the rest in parliamentary democracies. This finding, 

combined with the fact that almost two-thirds of the existing democracies in the 

international system use a parliamentary or semi-parliamentary system, seems to 

support the assertion that the symbolism and the unique powers of the executive 

branch in presidential systems makes such systems more attractive for political 

assassinations.

Competitiveness and Fragmentation

Beyond regime type, two additional specific features of a political system may 

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

# of 

Countries Per 

Column

DEMOCRACY SCORE
43

affect the tendency of groups or individuals to engage in political assassinations. The 

first is the level of competitiveness of the political system (and especially of the 

executive branch), and the second is its level of fragmentation. The current study 

assumes a negative correlation between the level of competitiveness and actors’ 

tendency to use political violence, including assassinations, mainly because in 

competitive systems less costly alternatives exist to influence the political processes, 

such as competing in the legitimate political arena or acting via civil society platforms. 

However, one caveat may be presented: it is possible to argue that the assassination of 

an opposition leader makes more sense when a system is actually competitive; after all, 

why assassinate a political actor who has no real chance to become part of, or replace, 

the government? Nevertheless, I will argue that the negative correlation still holds. The 

more competitive a political system is, the more it is accustomed to leadership changes 

via nonviolent practices; thus, regime change via assassination will enjoy less 

legitimacy, and probably be less acceptable by political elites. Furthermore, if a system 

really is competitive, ideologies that challenge the existing sociopolitical order will not 

disappear with the elimination of one figure. Empirical examination will help to clarify 

the impact of this variable in general, and its effect on the assassination of opposition 

leaders specifically.

Regarding the level of political fragmentation, highly fragmented political 

systems (those with a relatively high number of active political actors) face more 

inherent difficulties in forming consensual policies and are more susceptible to an 

escalation in the relations between internal political groups than less fragmented 

systems are. This naturally also increases the probability that some of the groups in 

such a fragmented system will resort to different types of political violence, including 

political assassinations. Countries such as Lebanon, Israel and India are examples of the 

potential linkage between high levels of political fragmentation and high levels of 

political violence.

In order to test the association between assassinations and the level of 

competition within a political system, I utilized two variables from the POLITY IV data 

set. The first focuses on competition within the executive branch and the second focuses 

on the competitiveness of the entire political system.
44

Figure 3.4: Political Assassinations by Level of Competitiveness of the Executive 

Branch (Based on XRCOMP Index from the POLITY IV Data Set: 0=Noncompetitive; 

3=Strongly Competitive)

The findings in figure 3.4 illustrate that countries with limited competition in the 

executive branch are less prone to political assassinations. Even when excluding attacks 

against opposition leaders or political candidates, the numbers remain similar. 

However, the picture is somewhat clearer when examining how assassinations are 

divided based on the extent to which alternative preferences for policy and leadership 

can be pursued in the political arena in general and not just within the executive branch. 

As figure 3.5 illustrates, more than 80 percent of assassinations were perpetrated in 

countries in which there is limited political competition (categories 0–2) or those in 

which the political competition is based on the balance of power among ethnic groups

(categories 3–4). Less than one-fifth of the attacks occurred in countries that Polity’s 

coders judged the country as enjoying effective and free electoral competition (category 

5).

Figure 3.5: Political Assassinations by Level of Competitiveness within the 

Political System (Based on PARACOMP Index from the Polity IV Data Set: 0=Noncompetitive; 5=Competitive)

.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

0 1 2 3

Year of Attack 5 Years Before Attack

1.3

21.2

15.3

24.7

17.8 19.7

.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

0 1 2 3 4 5
45

This may suggest that although the internal mechanisms that are responsible for 

nominations within an executive branch are lesser concerns for groups perpetrating 

assassinations, the inability to compete effectively in the political arena does indeed 

provide a strong incentive for political assassinations. In other words, political 

assassinations are about political power, and less about occupying particular offices (at 

least when assassinations are analyzed as a monolithic phenomenon, without 

distinguishing among types of targets).

A negative binomial model was used in the case of the competition variables in 

order to examine if indeed the occurrence of assassinations can be predicted by level of 

competitiveness. While the model was statistically significant, competition within the 

political system was marginally significant (Wald=2.975*), and competition within the 

executive branch was not significant. These results support the conclusions presented 

earlier in this section, that competition within the executive branch is less important in 

instigating assassinations, and that even the level of competitiveness in the entire 

political system, while it may have some effect on the likelihood of assassinations, does 

not exhibit a strong effect overall.

Finally, we also expected that fragmented political systems would be more 

vulnerable to political assassinations. In order to measure the level of fragmentation, I 

utilized two different metrics. The first pertains to the extent of factionalism within a

legislative branch and the second to the tendency of groups to operate outside a

political system and to directly challenge state authority (i.e., creating a territorial split 

or a territorial enclave where the “legitimate” government has limited control or 

influence). In order to measure the first variable, I used an updated version of Golder’s 

Democratic Electoral Systems (DES) data set,

54 and specifically the variables that 

measure the effective number of parties in the legislative branch (in the case that one 

exists) as a portion of the size of the legislative branch. In order to measure the second 

type of fragmentation, I used the Fragment index from POLITY IV data set.

The findings provide some interesting insights and generally confirm the initial 

assumptions presented earlier in this section. To begin with, political fragmentation 

 

54 see https://files.nyu.edu/mrg217/public/elections.html
46

within a political system seems to be positively associated with the occurrence of 

political assassinations. Figure 3.6 illustrates that the average level of political 

fragmentation (as manifested in the results of the last elections that were conducted 

before the assassination) in countries that experienced a political assassination is higher 

in comparison with the average level of fragmentation in the entire sample of 

democratic countries. ANOVA analysis confirmed that these gaps are also statistically 

significant.

Figure 3.6: Political Assassinations by Level of Fragmentation (Based on the 

Following Variables from the Democratic Electoral Systems Data Set: enep, enep1, enpp and 

enpp1)55

Furthermore, a polity’s territorial fragmentation seems to be associated with 

assassinations as well (see figure 3.7). While just 12.4 percent of existing polities suffer 

from any level of territorial fragmentation, more than 40 percent of the countries that 

experienced assassinations suffered from some level of fragmentation (i.e., some loss of 

sovereignty over some parts of the polity’s territory). Furthermore, although just 5

percent of existing polities suffered from “serious fragmentation” (i.e., more than 25

percent and up to 50 percent of a country’s territory effectively ruled by local authority 

and actively separated from the central authority), close to 15 percent of the countries 

that suffered from assassinations also suffered from “serious fragmentation.” Lastly, as 

 

55 The designations of (a) (b) in the figure represent two different ways that these variables were 

calculated. For more information, see the data set accompanying Nils-Christian Bormann and Matt 

Golder, “Democratic Electoral Systems around the World, 1946–2011,” Electoral Studies 32, no. 2 (June 

2013), 360–69; the data set is available at https://files.nyu.edu/mrg217/public/es3_codebook.pdf.

.0

.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

Effective number of 

electoral parties (a)

Effective number of 

electoral parties (b)

Effective Number of 

Parliamentary 

(Legislative) Parties (a)

Effective Number of 

Parliamentary 

(Legislative) Parties (b)

Politys w/Political Assassination

Entire Sample
47

can be seen from examining the level of fragmentation over time, an increase in

fragmentation and especially an escalation to “serious fragmentation” seem to increase 

the chances for the occurrence of political assassinations. Hence, a decrease in the level 

of influence or control of a government on parts of a polity’s territory increases the 

probability for the occurrence of political assassination.

Figure 3.7: Political Assassinations by Level of Fragmentation (Based on the 

Fragment variable from the POLITY IV Data Set)

56

These findings were further confirmed when a negative binomial model was 

conducted, showing that serious fragmentation in particular is indeed linked to the 

occurrence of assassinations (Wald=117.742*** for the entire variable and Wald=10.302** 

for the category of “series fragmentation”).

Civil Wars and Political Strife

As the model in figure 3.1 indicates, the second set of variables that may facilitate 

assassinations pertains to specific political and social circumstances. The first is the level 

of intrastate political violence; an increase in intrastate violence may lead some actors to 

include political assassinations as part of their arsenal of tactics. While civil wars 

usually represent the peak of intrastate political conflict, mass demonstrations, riots and 

mass disobedience may also serve as breeding grounds for attempts to target political 

figures, as these acts all represent a challenge to a government’s status as the ultimate 

 

56 The designations of (a) (b) in the figure represent two different ways in which these variables were 

calculated. For more information, see https://files.nyu.edu/mrg217/public/es3_codebook.pdf. 

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

No Overt 

Fragmentation

Slight Fragmentation Moderate 

Fragmentation

Serious 

Fragmentation

5 Years Before Attack Year of Attack
48

source of political authority.

Figure 3.8: Violent Conflicts and Political Assassinations (Based on PRIO’s Armed 

Conflicts Data Set)

Empirical data, mainly from UCDP/PRIO’s Armed Conflict data set,

57 seem to 

support the notion that civil wars and governments’ involvement in violence increase 

the frequency of political assassinations.

As figure 3.8 illustrates, almost half of all political assassinations occurred in the

backdrop of a violent political conflict, and almost 43 percent of all political 

assassinations occurred against the backdrop of a violent struggle between a

government and violent domestic sub-state groups. The state’s involvement in indirect 

conflict with other countries or with external sub-state groups doesn’t seem to increase 

the chances for the perpetration of political assassinations. Hence, political 

assassinations are rarely the result of bilateral conflicts and are instead almost 

 

57 The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) gathers information on various dimensions of armed 

conflicts that have taken place since 1946. The data is mostly perceived by the academic community as 

highly accurate and reliable, and its definition of armed conflict is becoming a standard in how conflicts 

are systematically defined and studied. For more information, see 

www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/program_overview. 

52%

2% 3%

32%

11%

No War

Conflict Between State and Non-state 

Actor Outside State Borders

Interstate Armed Conflict 

Internal Armed Conflict between The 

Government of A State And One or More 

Internal Opposition Group
49

exclusively triggered by internal political struggle.

The facts that 39.5 percent of the conflicts that included assassinations could be 

considered full-out wars (mostly civil wars) and that more than 73 percent of those

conflicts caused more than one thousand casualties seem to support the assertion that 

an increase in the intensity of violence increases the likelihood of political 

assassinations. The statistical significance of two separate negative binomial models, 

one with the occurrence of civil war as an explanatory variable (Wald=421.453***), and 

one with conflict’s intensity as an explanatory variable (based on the Intensity variable 

from PRIO’s Armed Conflicts data set) (Wald=24.058***), provide further support for 

these conclusions.

As indicated before, although civil wars usually represent the peak of intrastate 

political strife, other societal events may incentivize political assassinations. In order to 

understand the association between these societal events and political assassinations, a 

set of measurements from the Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive (CNTS) data 

set58 were used.

As can be seen from figure 3.9, which provides the portion of countries that prior 

to experiencing a political assassination suffered from some preceding societal events 

(once or multiple times), several social dynamics tend to precede political 

assassinations. The closer we are to the year of the assassination, the higher the 

probability for the occurrence of multiple antigovernment demonstrations and riots. 

More complicated dynamics are found when looking at purges (systematic elimination 

by jailing or executing political opposition within the ranks of a regime or from its

opposition) and governmental crisis (a rapidly developing situation that threatens to 

bring the downfall of the present regime), when the growth is not consistent. In both 

cases the portion of polities that suffer from these occurrences two years before an

assassination is higher than in the year prior to the assassination. Thus, it seems that 

direct protest is more indicative of forthcoming political assassination than

 

58 The Cross-National Time-Series (CNTS) Data Archive, initially constructed by Arthur S. Banks at New 

York University, provides various annual data for most countries. Currently the CNTS Data Archive is 

distributed by Databanks International in an Excel format. The archive continued to be updated with data 

supplied by Dr. Banks until he passed away in April 2011, and it continues to be updated using his 

sources. For more information, see www.databanksinternational.com/53.html. 
50

governmental crisis or governmental violence directed against segments of the 

population.

Figure 3.9: Societal Dynamics and Political Assassinations (Based on PRIO’s 

Armed Conflicts Data Set)

Elections

The second environmental variable is related to electoral campaigns. Although 

elections were perceived for many years as political processes that can decrease political 

tensions, a more recent body of literature emphasizes the role of elections as facilitators 

of militancy and political violence, especially in polarized societies, fragmented political 

systems and young democracies.59 The main assertion of this literature is that a 

contentious political environment may encourage some groups to further radicalize in 

order to distinguish themselves from the “crowd”; also, the electoral process may 

demonstrate the limited appeal of these marginal groups’ ideologies, thus pushing 

them to utilize violence. Moreover, elections are also times in which the leader of a 

political opposition has more opportunities to elevate his or her status and influence 

and become a significant threat to the governing leadership; therefore, he or she may be

 

59 Leonard Weinberg, Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Political Parties and Terrorist Groups (New York: 

Routledge, 2008); Erica Chenoweth, “Terrorism and Democracy,” Annual Review of Political Science 16 

(May 2013): 355–78.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

General Strikes (Single event)

General Strikes (Multiple Events)

Major Government Crises (Single Event) 

Major Government Crises (Multiple Events) 

Purges (Single Event)

Purges (Multiple Events)

Riots (Single Event)

Riots (Multiple Events)

Anti-government Demonstrations (Single Event)

Anti-government Demonstrations (Multiple Events)

year of Assassination

1 year before Assassination

2 years before Assassination
51

more vulnerable to assassination by a government’s proxies or political rivals. Lastly, 

electoral campaigns substantially increase the visibility and exposure of political leaders 

to the public, making them more convenient targets for assassination from an 

operational perspective. Considering all the above, an examination of whether political 

assassinations are more common during elections seems important (see figure 3.10).

Figure 3.10: Elections and Political Assassinations

As can be seen in figure 3.10, almost 60 percent of assassinations occur during 

election years, and a similar portion occur during the year before an election, when a

political environment is gearing up toward electoral competition (in some countries 

elections were conducted in subsequent years; as a result, the sum of both categories is 

higher than 100 percent). When combined, 76 percent of assassinations in countries 

holding elections occur during an election year or the year before. Moreover, figure 3.10 

illustrates that the vast majority of elections that were accompanied with assassinations 

were characterized by some lack of fairness or limitations on opposition parties’ 

activities. Hence, it seems that most assassinations during election years are another 

extension of oppressive mechanisms against opposition political groups, or a counterresponse by an opposition to a regime’s oppressive nature.

A negative binomial model with an explanatory variable for an election year 

provides further support for the above observations. It was statistically significant, both 

for the year of election (Wald=11.830**) and the year before elections (Wald=5.210**).

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Election Year

Year before election

Assassination during year/or year before 

elections when it is clear election will not be ...

Was the incumbent or ruling party confident of 

victory before elections?

Assassination during year/or year before 

elections when opposition is being harassed ...
52

Economic Development

The literature on political violence has also dealt extensively with the linkage 

among political violence, political instability and economic conditions. From a microlevel perspective, many scholars have assumed that individuals who join violent substate groups or engage in militant activities suffer from frustration and desperation that, 

in some cases, are a result of perceived economic deprivation.60 From a macro-level 

perspective, a lack of economic growth may present challenges that will eventually 

undermine the political stability of and support for an existing political order.61 Hence it 

seems important to examine how the economic development of a polity contributes to 

or mitigates the probability of political assassinations within it.

Interestingly, and not as assumed in some parts of the existing literature, we find 

positive relations between economic development and probability of assassinations. 

ANOVA analyses confirmed that the average GDP of country-years suffering from 

assassination is significantly (three times) higher than the average GDP of country-years 

that did not experience assassinations (F=41.836***). A separate model, which takes into 

account not just the occurrence of assassination, but also the quantity of assassinations 

in a country-year, further supports this conclusion (ß=.05***).

Several hypotheses can be presented in order to explain these findings. First, 

some scholars tend to point out the positive correlation between a developed economy 

and effective political institutions.62 Thus, polities with highly developed economies 

also have strong political institutions, and those holding political positions have 

significant power; hence, attacking those individuals may have a significant impact on 

political processes. In less developed countries, where the influence and power of those 

occupying political offices are more limited as a result of the weakness of political 

institutions, there may be less incentive to attack political figures.

 

60 Pedahzur, Perliger and Weinberg, “Altruism and Fatalism.”

61 See James A. Piazza, “Rooted in Poverty?: Terrorism, Poor Economic Development, and Social 

Cleavages,” Terrorism and Political Violence 18, no. 1 (2006): 159–77.

62 Douglass C. North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, (Cambridge University 

Press, 1990); Minxin Peo, Economic Institutions, Democracy, and Development (paper presented at the 

Conference on Democracy, Market Economy and Development, sponsored by the World Bank and the 

government of the Republic of Korea, 26–27 February 1999).
53

Another possible hypothesis is based on the assumption that, in developed

countries, the effect of economic decline on the general population is usually more 

comprehensive and significant than in developing countries, where the quality of living 

is already low. Hence, an economic crisis will have more positive effect on the ability of 

opposition groups to garner support and legitimacy in more economically developed 

countries. Although it is not possible to test the first hypothesis in the framework of the 

current study, the data set allows us to test the second hypothesis. However, our 

analysis did not find support to the assumption that assassinations are more probable 

following an economic decline. (Based on GDP level, this was tested by looking at the 

GDP levels 5, 4, 3, 2, one year before an assassination or a cluster of assassinations). It 

seems that a separate study focusing on the relations between economic factors and 

political assassinations should be conducted.

Finally, it is important also to take into consideration the possibility that, in 

developing countries, the level of reporting on political assassinations is lower than in 

developed countries.

History of Political Assassinations

Lastly, we should also consider whether a “contingency effect” affects the level 

of political assassinations as would-be assassins try to imitate past successes. We should 

consider this especially since the literature tends to emphasize the contingency effect of 

“successful” tactics among sub-state groups as well as governments.63 The opposite may 

be the case as well, as a negative experience with political assassinations (a failed 

attempt or a successful assassination that yielded a negative effect for the perpetrating 

actor) may lead groups or individuals to avoid using this tactic. One of the major 

challenges in testing this assumption is the difficulty of assessing whether

assassinations were perceived to be effective in the eyes of their perpetrators or other 

groups.

Yet some preliminary findings suggest that this factor may be important for 

explaining the tendency of groups to use political assassinations. Our findings show 

that more than 66 percent of the countries in our data set experienced multiple political 

 

63 See, for example, Robert Pape, “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science 

Review 97, no. 3 (August 2003): 343–61.
54

assassinations in their past, and another 13.1 percent experienced at least one 

assassination in their past. Another interesting related trend is the clustering of 

assassinations. In other words, when looking at the distribution of assassinations over 

time in a specific country that has suffered from multiple assassinations, assassinations

are usually found to be clustered in specific time frames. For example, in the case of 

Afghanistan, after thirty years of no assassinations, the country suffered no fewer than 

four assassinations in the mid- to late 1970s, then experienced almost another twenty

years of no assassinations before a barrage of assassinations in the 2000s. Algeria is 

another example. After a series of assassinations in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the 

country saw no assassinations for twenty years before another series of assassinations in 

the early 1990s. Lastly, Argentina suffered from no fewer than fourteen political 

assassinations during the nine-year period from 1969 to 1978, but it has experienced no 

assassinations since then. This trend illustrates both the strong contingency effect of 

assassinations as well as the possible effect of specific societal and political conditions 

on the probability for assassinations. It also provides preliminary support to the 

assumption regarding sub-state groups’ tendency to reproduce past success when 

looking for the appropriate violent measure to promote their political agenda. The latter 

conclusion, however, demands a more rigorous examination.

Summary

In order to examine the relative importance of the variables discussed in this 

chapter, two negative binomial models were employed, each including different sets of 

variables, with the number of assassination per country-year as the dependent variable. 

The first model was conducted to examine the relative importance of the political 

variables. It included some additional variables beyond those discussed in this chapter

related to the level of fragmentation and factionalism (these were extracted from the 

Ethnic Power Relations data set).

64 The model was significant and reflected that the 

number of politically excluded minority groups (Wald=17.730***) and the level of 

physical fragmentation (Wald=16.116***) were the strongest predictors, followed by the 

level of political fragmentation (Wald=7.472**), the level of democratization 

(Wald=6.097*) and the level of political polarization (WALD=2.667*). The levels of 

competition in the executive branch and in the entire political system were not found 

 

64 The Ethnic Power Relations data set (EPR3) measures the characteristic and access to state power of all 

politically relevant ethnic groups from 1946 to 2010. Thus,it includes annual data for 157 countries and 

758 groups. For more information, see www.epr.ucla.edu/. 
55

significant. Further discussion regarding the importance of these findings will be 

presented in the concluding chapter of this study, but it is clear that the characteristics 

of the political setting have an important effect on the probability for the occurrence of 

political assassinations, especially in cases in which polities are characterized by deep 

social and political polarization and factionalism. Moreover, liberal democracies seem 

to have better mechanisms to prevent growing polarization from leading to political 

assassinations.

The second model included the environmental variables and was significant as 

well, although it was less strong than the model of the political variables. The 

occurrence of elections and the level of GDP were the only statistically significant 

predictors (Wald=3.975* for election year and Wald=13.199*** for GDP); variables 

related to the occurrence and intensity of domestic violence were not significant. This 

further supports the growing body of literature that refers to the role of elections, 

especially in non-liberal democracies, as facilitators of political animosity rather than 

promoters of nonviolent political competition. These findings also illustrate the 

problematic side effect of effective political development, which makes political 

institutions relevant and those holding public offices worthy of being targeted.

The analysis and variables presented so far aim to predict the probability of a 

political assassination regardless of the type of target. However, some other factors and 

variables may be more suitable for predicting attacks against specific types of political 

figures. Thus more sensitive models are presented in the next chapter in relation to 

assassinations of heads of state, deputy heads of state, opposition leaders and members 

of a legislative branch.
56

Chapter 4: Facilitators of Political Assassinations of Heads of State, 

Deputy Heads of State, Opposition Leaders and Legislators

Assassinations of Heads of State

The fall of 2012 seemed to usher in some optimism among Somalia’s war-weary 

citizens, as Hassan Sheikh Mohamad, a university professor and social activist, was 

elected president by the legislature on 10 September. It is not surprising, then, that after 

his formal election, legislators spontaneously started to sing the national anthem, 

expressing their optimism that the new president would be an important force in the 

country’s post-conflict reconstruction efforts. Just two days later, however, everyone 

was reminded of the volatile reality of the country. While President Mohamad was 

giving one of his first speeches, at Mogadishu’s Jazeera Hotel in front of diplomatic 

delegations, two suicide bombers and two gunmen dressed in government uniforms 

conducted an attack with the intension to assassinate the new president. Despite the ten

casualties that resulted, the president survived. But how can we explain the rationale 

behind a decision to assassinate a president merely two days after he was elected,

before he was able to implement any significant policy changes? And if his actions were 

not the main motive behind the assassination attempt, what factors were in play? The 

following section will try to clarify such issues and to examine the unique factors that 

trigger the assassinations of heads of state.

In the universe of political assassinations, heads of state represent the most 

desirable targets. As figures positioned at the top of the political system, heads of state 

have a potential practical and symbolic value as targets greater than the value of 

political figures from lower political echelons. From a practical perspective, the head of 

state has the ultimate responsibility for shaping and implementing existing public 

policies, as well as devising long-term policy doctrines. From a symbolic perspective, 

few other acts of political violence are more effective illustrations of the vulnerabilities 

of a regime, and few other acts have the potential to elevate the visibility, legitimacy 

and status of a group, movement or individual, than the assassination of a head of state.

Some of the factors mentioned in the previous chapter, which may facilitate 

political assassinations in general, are naturally also relevant to assassinations of heads 

of state. However, additional specific facilitators should also be examined and are 

presented in figure 4.1.
57

Figure 4.1: Specific Facilitators of Assassination of Head of State

As indicated by Iqbal and Zorn,

65 the lack of a strong mechanism to determine 

who will replace a head of state after his or her tenure, or how a successor will be 

chosen, may encourage the use of assassinations as a political tool. The rationale behind 

this assertion is that, in countries where succession is highly regulated, the overall 

effectiveness of assassinations will be limited, since the political system has the tools to 

ensure an effective transition of power to a new leader, thus limiting the possibility of 

political chaos, a crisis of legitimacy and the emergence of opportunities for opposition 

groups. It is important to note that regulated succession is not unique to established 

democracies; it may also characterize some totalitarian regimes and monarchies that

formalize clear lines of succession (see the cases of Saudi Arabia or North Korea).

Empirical analyses do not provide significant support for this hypothesis when 

looking at the overall population of assassinations (see figure 4.2), as less than 10

percent of the polities that suffered from political assassinations (of any type) had 

unregulated recruitment of the head of the executive branch (a change in chief executive 

occurring through a forceful seizure of power and not via formal or competitive 

mechanisms).

66 However, when limiting the sample to assassinations of heads of state, 

there is an impressive rise in the number of assassinations in countries with completely 

 

65 As also indicated by Iqbal and Zorn, “Sic Semper Tyrannis?”

66 The level of regulated succession was measured using the XRREG index from the Polity IV data set.

1. Weak Regulated Succession

2. Centralized Political Power

3. Oppressed Minorities

4. Length of tenure

Assassination of 

Head of State
58

unregulated succession or a transitional method of succession (a situation in which 

chief executives are chosen by designation within the political elite, without formal 

competition, or a situation in which there are transitional arrangements intended to 

regularize future power transitions after an initial unregulated seizure of power).

Figure 4.2: Regulated Succession and Political Assassinations

Close to two-thirds of assassinations of heads of states occur in countries in 

which groups outside the elite circles have almost no opportunities to gain influence 

within the executive branch. A negative binomial model with level of regulation as the 

independent variable and the number of assassinations of heads of states as the 

dependent variable further confirms our findings by indicating that the lack of 

regulation increases the odds of an assassin’s targeting a of head of state 

(Wald=17.436***). Also, as predicted, including all assassinations (not just heads of state) 

in the same model as the dependent variable produced no statistically significant 

results.

Although the rationale that explains the impact of regulated succession on the 

probability of political assassinations is fairly straightforward, understanding how the 

level of power held by a head of state effects his or her chances to be assassinated is 

slightly more challenging.67 On one hand, the more the political power is concentrated 

in the hands of a head of state, the greater the potential benefits of his assassination in 

 

67 As also indicated by Iqbal and Zorn, “Sic Semper Tyrannis?”

8.7

38.0

53.3

19.2

43.3

37.5

Unregulated Designational/Transitional Regulated

All Assassinations Head of State
59

terms of inducing political or policy changes and making a symbolic statement. On the 

other hand, the more centralized the political power, the more leverage a leader has in 

developing mechanisms that mitigate the risk of his or her assassination. This is 

especially true in authoritarian systems, whether these mechanisms are a cult of 

personality, indoctrination or robust security forces capable of deterring an 

assassination. Hence, we can hypothesize that the level of power held by a leader is 

positively correlated with the probability of assassination, except in strong authoritarian 

political systems, where the relationship is inverted.

Indeed, the empirical results seem to indicate a positive correlation between the 

level of political power held by a head of state and the probability of his or her 

assassination. As can be seen by looking at the whole sample shown in figure 4.3, most 

assassinations occur in countries in which an executive’s power is limited by a system 

of checks and balances (the level of executive power was measured using XCONST 

index from the POLITY IV data set). In contrast, when focusing on the assassinations of 

heads of state, the picture is reversed, as most assassinations occur in countries with 

limited constraints on the powers of the executive branch. A negative binomial model 

shows a strong association between the level of executive power and the probability for 

the assassination of a head of state, with a strong tendency for assassinations of head of 

states in highly centralized executives (Wald=32.077***); the opposite correlation was 

found statistically significant when the dependent variable was assassinations in 

general (Wald=158.876***).

It also seems that regime type is related to the assassination of heads of states. 

Two-thirds of the assassinations occurred in non-democracies, with an exceptionally 

high portion of them in totalitarian systems (48 percent). Furthermore, after dividing 

the sample of non-democratic countries suffering from assassinations of heads of state 

into totalitarian (POLITY score of -6 and below) and authoritarian (POLITY score 

between -5 and 0), we find that none of the above models were significant and thus not 

supportive of the assertion presented above regarding reverse relations between 

executive power and the probability of assassinations in the case of totalitarian regimes.

Figure 4.3: Level of Executive Power and Political Assassinations (%)
60

A third factor that may facilitate attacks against heads of state is related to the 

status of minorities in a polity, as it is well established in the academic literature that 

significant inequality between majority and minority groups, whether in terms of 

political, social or cultural rights or resources, may lead to increasingly negative

relationships between the groups and an outbreak of violence.68 Thus, the next analysis 

attempts to identify to what extent the existence of oppressed minorities within a polity 

increases the risk of political assassinations to leaders who usually seem the most

responsible for the minorities’ discrimination. Probably the most glaring example of 

such a dynamic may be found in Sri-Lanka, where the LTTE, representing the deprived 

Tamil minority, organized a bloody campaign of political assassinations against the 

political leadership of the state and the Sinhalese majority since the early 1980s until 

approximately 2009.

In order to test if the nature of minority-majority relations may affect the 

probability for assassinations, the Ethnic Power Relations (EPR) data set was used in a 

negative binomial model. The findings confirm that several variables are significantly 

associated with an increasing probability for the occurrence of political assassinations, 

 

68 See for example James A. Piazza, “Poverty, Minority Economic Discrimination, and Domestic 

Terrorism,” Journal of Peace Research 48, no. 3 (May 2011): 339–53; Rizal Buendia, “The State-Moro Armed 

Conflict in the Philippines: Unresolved National Question or Question of Governance?,” Asian Journal of 

Political Science 13, no. 1 (2005): 109–38.

.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0

Unlimited Authority

Excutive Subordination

Head of States

All Sample
61

including the number of excluded minority groups (Wald=146.356***), the size of the 

excluded population (Wald=483.089***), the size of the discriminated population 

(Wald=303.444***) and the level of polarization (Wald=482.560***).69 These findings 

support the hypothesis that contends that the presence of and level of exclusion of 

minorities facilitate political assassinations. When examining how these variables are 

associated with the probability for the assassination of a head of state, the findings are 

somewhat less strong but still definitive, as the size of the excluded population 

(Wald=158.645***), the size of the discriminated population (Wald=73.270***), and the 

level of political polarization (Wald=116.087***) were found significant. When looking 

more specifically at the nature of the minorities involved in assassinations, the negative 

binomial analysis found that half of them suffered from some kind of political or 

economic oppression or discrimination, and the discrimination was more focused on 

the political rather the economic dimension.

Lastly, the length of a head of state’s tenure may also affect his or her chances to 

be assassinated. The longer the head of state remains in office, the greater the likelihood 

that some segments of the polity will begin to resent the length of the regime’s tenure,

and the less likely a peaceful political transition becomes. This may encourage a group 

or an individual to contemplate using violence to end a ruler’s tenure. A 

counterargument, however, could be made along the lines that political assassinations 

are more attractive against a head of state in the early stages of his or her tenure. New 

leaders may be more vulnerable to violent attacks given their more limited control over 

the levers of power, especially if they preside over countries experiencing profound 

political polarization. Indeed, the literature on civil war emphasizes the vulnerability of 

“new” regimes.70

The findings (see figure 4.4) are actually supportive of both hypotheses, as the 

leaders with the highest chances to be assassinated are those with relatively very short 

tenures and those with very long ones.

 

69 See Joan-María Esteban and Ray Esteban, “On The Measurement of Polarization,” Econometrica 62, no. 4 

(July 1994): 819–51; Martha Reynal-Querol, “Ethnicity, Political Systems and Civil War,” Journal of Conflict 

Resolution 46, no. 1 (February 2002): 29–54. 

70 See, for example, James D. Fearon, “Commitment Problems and the Spread of Ethnic Conflict,” in The 

International Spread of Ethnic Conflict, ed. David Lake and Donald Rothschild (New Jersey: Princeton 

University Press, 1998), 107–26. 
62

Figure 4.4: Tenure of Assassinated Figures

To conclude, in order to examine the relative importance of the variables 

discussed in this section and presented in the theoretical model (see figure 4.1), a 

negative binomial model with the number of assassinations of heads of states per 

country-year as the dependent variable was exercised. The model was significant, as 

well as two variables: POLITY score (Wald=45.224***) and level of regulated succession 

(Wald=7.240*). This indicates that weak democracies and nondemocratic systems, which 

are lacking effective succession mechanisms, are the most prone to suffer from 

assassination attacks against the head of state. It also indicates that the nature of the

political structure is more influential on the probability of assassinations than dynamics 

related to the state’s social structure (the level of polarization, the existence of

discriminate minorities, etc.), although these two realms are naturally related and 

interact.

Facilitators of Political Assassinations: Deputy or Vice Head of State

Why has no American vice president been killed while in office, in comparison 

with the numerous successful and unsuccessful assassination attempts on various 

American presidents? One answer could be that in the American context, the vice 

president usually has no special powers or significant influence on the formulation of

significant policies. Another answer is that there is no guarantee that he or she will 

succeed the president after the latter’s term expires. Based on these possible 

0

5

10

15

20

25
63

explanations, two hypotheses can be presented regarding the factors that might trigger 

the assassination of a deputy or vice head of state: (1) when it is clear that he or she is 

the next in the line of succession (as a result of regulated succession); (2) when he or she

has some unique responsibilities or influence regarding policies the perpetrators would 

like to promote or prevent.

The assassination of a vice president may also be used as a signaling mechanism. 

Although the benefits of killing the number one politician are higher than those of 

killing his or her deputy, the costs and difficulties of doing so are extremely high as 

well. Thus, killing the second in command can present a reasonable compromise, 

sending a warning to the leader himself, and still generating significant symbolic 

benefits (in terms of publicity and exposure for a group, and in exposing the 

vulnerability of a government).

Lastly, we can also assume that the expected effective length of the vice president

or deputy’s tenure as head of state (if it exists) and his or her political importance 

within the system may also influence the probability of his or her being assassinated. 

Relatively mature deputies whose political peak is behind them will probably be less 

attractive targets for assassins because even if they become the head of state, their 

tenure will probably be relatively short.

A careful analysis of the twenty-eight cases of assassinations (and assassination 

attempts) against individuals who served as deputy heads of state provides 

confirmation of most of these assumptions while also illustrating three major dynamics 

that facilitate such events.

The first dynamic takes place in the context of an assassination of a vice head of 

state who in high probability will become the head of the state and hold unique powers 

and responsibilities. Probably one of the more glaring examples of this dynamic is the 

series of assassination attempts against Aleksander Ankvab, who was targeted no less 

than five times between the years 2005 and 2010 when he served as the prime minster 

(basically the second in power) of Abkhazia under the administration of President 

Sergei Bagapsh. Ankvab’s attempt to participate in the 2004 presidential elections failed 

after he was disqualified by the central election commission on the grounds of his 
64

limited knowledge of the native language as well as his limited time spent in the 

country. Unable to run for the presidency, Ankvab, an affluent businessman, supported 

Sergei Bagapsh’s candidacy. After Bagapsh won the election, he returned the favor, as 

many had expected, by nominating Ankvab to be prime minister. In this role, Ankvab 

was the official responsible for the implementation of significant economic and legal 

reforms that were supposed to curb the influence of organized crime in the country and

reduce the level of corruption in the public administration. Hence, the predominant 

assumption is that the assassinations against Ankvab were “sponsored” by organized 

criminal groups.71 To conclude, this case includes a deputy head of state with unique 

powers, strongly associated with new and controversial policies, and who in the eyes of 

many was the clear successor to the head of state.

The circumstances surrounding the assassination attempt against Chiang Chingkuo in April 1970 illustrate some similar characteristics, and again emphasize the 

importance of the future role of the deputy head of state and his relations with the 

existing head of state. Chiang Ching-kuo was not just the son of Chiang Kai-shek (the 

first president of the Republic of China), but he also held a long line of roles within his 

father’s government shortly after the nationalist troops consolidated their control over 

the island of Taiwan; these roles included the director of the secret police, defense 

minister and eventually vice president in 1969. At that point, it was clear that he would 

be his father’s successor and that he intended to maintain the authoritarian policies that

ensured the ongoing rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and marginalized the 

political influence of natives of Taiwan. Hence, in April 1970, members of the World 

United Formosans for Independence (WUFI), a movement dedicated to the liberation of 

Taiwan and the establishment of an independent state, tried to assassinate Chiang 

Ching-kuo while he was visiting New York City. Here again, there was a clear 

understanding that Chiang Ching-kuo would be the future head of state, and strong 

indications that he intended to maintain his father’s policies as well as his unique 

powers within the political system, factors that presumably made him an attractive 

target for assassination.

 

71 “Bagapsh: ‘Criminals’ Behind PM Assassination Attempt,” Civil Georgia, 1 March 2005,

http://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9213-accessdate=4 ; http://archive.today/U3baX; “Abkhaz MPs Call 

Government to Investigate Attack on Ankvab,” Regnum, 11 July 2007, 

www.regnum.ru/english/polit/854515.html.
65

The last example of this kind of assassination is the killing of the Paraguayan vice

president Luis Maria Argaña in 1999. A prominent politician and former supreme court 

judge, Argaña clearly had strong odds of inheriting the presidency from Raúl Cubas. At 

that time Cubas was close to being impeached and under investigation for abusing his 

power as president. The military’s elites, who were involved in a failed attempted coup 

in 1998 and enjoyed significant influence over President Cubas, were major suspects in

facilitating the assassination, as they were concerned that Argañas, their long-term 

rival, would push for more restrictions on the role and powers of the military 

establishment.72

The second dynamic involves cases of assassinations against politicians who,

after completing their tenure as deputy head of state, remain involved in the political 

process and thus are perceived to be potential threats to the existing regime. Several 

examples illustrate this trend. Antoine Idrissou Meatchi, a former vice president of 

Togo, was assassinated while imprisoned by Gnassingbé Eyadéma’s military regime in 

1984, while he was still perceived as a potential political threat. In another example, 

Hardan Takriti, who was the Iraqi defense minister and premier deputy between 1968

and 1970 before moving to Kuwait to organize a coup against Ahmed Hassan al-Bakar’s 

government, was assassinated in 1971 by Saddam Hussain’s agents (at that time 

Hussain was already the most powerful figure in al-Bakar’s regime). The assassination 

of the Syrian major general Mohammed Umran follows the same pattern. He was 

assassinated after retiring from his position as deputy premier and minster of defense 

before the coup that facilitated the rise of Hafez al-Assad to power. He was still 

perceived as a threat by the relatively young Assad’s regime, which organized his 

assassination in 1972. In all these cases and similar ones, the political capital of deputies

was perceived as endangering a relatively new authoritarian regime looking to solidify 

its control over a country.

Finally, the third type of assassination of deputies takes place in the context of a 

political struggle during or following a civil war, when opponents are looking to target 

prominent political figures of the other side. Cases in point are the assassination of 

Sheik Mohammed Ali Othman in Yemen in 1973; the assassination attempt against 

 

72 “Arrested Gunman Implicates Oviedo, Cubas in Argaña Assassination,” Miami Herald, 29 October 1999, 

www.latinamericanstudies.org/paraguay/gunman.htm.
66

Hojatoleslam Mohammed Ali Khameini in Iran in 1981; the assassination of Hakija 

Turajlić, the deputy prime minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina, by a Serbian nationalist in 

1993; and the assassination of Mihajlo Ljesar, the vice president of Montenegro, that 

same year.

To conclude, it is important to note that the assassination of a deputy head of 

state is a fairly rare phenomenon. When it happens, it may be perceived as a selective 

attempt to block particular policies or the deputy’s future nomination as the head of 

state, or as part of a larger violent political struggle (usually a civil war).

Assassinations of Leaders of Political Parties and Opposition Movements

Although the academic literature on political assassinations has focused almost 

exclusively on the assassinations of members of the executive branch, the targets of 

political assassinations are in many cases political leaders who are not part of the 

government. Whether they are leaders of opposition parties, social movements or other 

political groups, they may be targeted by rival political groups or by proxies of the 

regime. In any case, it seems logical to assume that the factors that trigger their 

assassinations are sometimes different from those that facilitate the assassinations of 

members of the government.

Since the leaders of opposition political parties or social movements are not part 

of the executive branch, they do not have access to executive power and cannot directly 

shape policy. Their political importance and power is derived almost exclusively from 

their popularity. In other words, they are influential figures as long as they can garner 

enough popularity and support, which in turn allows them to pressure a government to 

concede to their demands, or even to challenge a state’s leadership and the 

sociopolitical order. Thus, we can assume that party and movement leaders must pass 

some threshold of support in order to become “candidates” for assassination by their 

rivals. Moreover, based on this logic, we can also assume that the likelihood of their 

assassination will increase at times when they can more readily translate their 

popularity to political achievements (therefore becoming more threatening to the 

political status quo). One of these times is during election campaigns, and especially 

those campaigns in which preliminary indications show a close race between the 

governing party or leader and the opposition party or leader. Another situation that
67

may provide an opportunity for external actors to challenge a government is during 

times of popular dissatisfaction and political strife, especially when opposition leaders 

are perceived as responsible contributors to the growing unrest. In these circumstances, 

a regime or rival groups may resort to action against these leaders, including, in 

extreme cases, their assassination.

Lastly, an opposition leader may be especially influential when she or he

represents a committed and loyal constituency such as an ethnic or religious minority. 

Hence, we can further speculate that the leaders of such groups may be more 

vulnerable to assassination in comparison with leaders who represent a less cohesive 

constituency that a regime can hope to mobilize. A summary of the factors that may 

facilitate assassinations of opposition leaders is presented in figure 4.5.

Figure 4.5: Facilitators of Assassination of Party and Movement Leaders

Although standardized data on the level of popularity of opposition leaders is 

difficult to obtain, empirical analyses based on 163 assassinations73 (or assassination 

 

73 Some may expect a higher number of cases in this category. It is not clear if the number of attacks 

against opposition leaders in the dataset is a result of a report bias, the fact that many opposition leaders 

are members of parliament (hence included under the category of attacks against parliament members), 

or other reason. In any case, there is no reason to assume that the cases included in the dataset do not 

1. Popular Support

2. High Levels of Political Strife

3. Democratic Setting

4. Election Periods

5. Represent Minority Group

Assassination of 

Opposition Leaders
68

attempts) of political figures that did not serve in the executive office at the time of their 

assassination confirm many of the assumptions presented in this section, and also 

indirectly help us substantiate the hypothesis regarding the correlation between an 

opposition leader’s popularity and his or her chances of being targeted.

Figure 4.6: Perpetrators of Assassinations of Party and Movement Leaders

To begin with, as expected, the involvement of governments in these kinds of 

assassinations is much higher in comparison with their involvement in other types of 

assassinations (see figure 4.6). Proxies of governments perpetrated close to half of the 

assassinations of opposition leaders; other competing sub-state actors perpetrated the 

rest of the assassinations. Hence, opposition leaders are usually targeted by the 

government they are challenging, or by sub-state actors whom they are competing 

against.

Figure 4.7: Type of Regime and Assassination of Party and Movement Leader 

(Polity scale from the Polity IV data set used to differentiate between types of regime: -

10=totalitarian regime; 10=strong liberal democracy)

 

adequately represent the population of assassination attacks against opposition leaders. 

0 10 20 30 40 50

State Sponsorhip

Individuals

Political Groups

Terrorist Groups

All others

Opposition 

Leaders
69

These violent competitions seem to evolve mainly in countries in which

democratic norms and practices are weak. As can be seen in figure 4.7, the portion of 

assassinations of opposition leaders is lower (in comparison with other types of 

assassinations) in strong democracies (POLITY scores of 9 and 10) and overall is higher 

in non-democratic countries. Indeed, the average country-year POLITY score of 

countries in which opposition leaders were assassinated was three times lower (.47) 

than in country-years suffering from other types of assassinations (1.58).

These findings correspond with the fact that a significant portion of the 

perpetrators of assassinations of opposition leaders are governmental proxies, and also 

with the tendency of authoritarian systems to delegitimize formal expressions of 

opposition to the government. A negative binomial model with the POLITY score as the 

dependent variable further confirmed these assumptions (Wald=930.652***).

Beyond the reality that authoritarian and non-liberal political frameworks are 

more dangerous for opposition leaders, can we identify particular circumstances in 

which the risk is further elevated? In the model presented in figure 4.5, I suggest two 

such possibilities. The first is related to increased political tensions and strife. Indeed, 

the data provide several indications that support this assumption. To begin with, 65.6

percent of the assassinations of opposition leaders occurred against the backdrop of 

violent political clashes. It should be noted that some assassinations occurred in the 

midst of multiple expressions of political violence including coups d’état (4.9 percent), 

state violence (12.9 percent), clashes involving external actors (11.6 percent), clashes

based in ethnic or religious violence (13.5 percent), limited clashes between state and 

sub-state groups (6.7 percent), and all-out civil wars (20.9 percent). Hence, civil wars 

.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Others

Opposition 

Leaders
70

seem to be the most common trigger for the assassinations of opposition leaders, 

followed by more restricted incidents of ethnic or religiously motivated violence, as 

well as state violence. These broad categories suggest that an overall escalation in 

relations between intrastate communities, or between communities and a regime, 

provide the major context for opposition leaders’ assassinations. Moreover, we were 

able to identify that 17.2 percent of the assassinations were associated with an escalation 

in the relations between the perpetrators’ political platform and the victims’ political 

platform. Hence, more than 80 percent of the attacks overall are a result of growing 

hostility within the political environment.

By using PRIO’s Armed Conflict data set, it is possible also to conclude that the 

majority of the civil wars that included assassinations of opposition leaders were 

intrastate conflicts (84.6 percent) and that the majority of them eventually escalated into 

serious conflicts (conflicts with more than one thousand battlefield casualties).

Negative binomial models with the existence and the intensity of civil war74 as 

dependent variables confirm the association between the emergence of internal violent 

conflicts and the increasing chances for assassinations of opposition leaders 

(Wald=296.480 ). When using PRIO’s cumulative intensity as the dependent variable, 

the results are also significant (Wald=11.080** ), emphasizing that the lengthier the 

conflict, the higher the chances that eventually the tactic of assassination will be used 

against political figures who are not part of the executive branch.

Another factor that may increase the chances of opposition leaders to be targeted 

is elections. Here, however, the findings are less definitive. Our data show that 38

percent of assassinations against opposition leaders occurred during an election year or 

the year before. The share is close to 60 percent when taking into consideration only 

countries with electoral processes. Around half of these attacks occurred in instances in 

which it was clear that the elections were not fair and when the incumbent party or 

candidate was not sure about his or her ability to win the election. Models that included 

the various election variables as independent variables and the assassination of 

opposition leaders as the dependent variable were not statistically significant, further 

 

74 PRIO level of conflict intensity differentiates between minor conflicts, which result in between 25 and 

999 battle-related deaths in a given year, and major conflicts, which result in at least 1,000 battle-related 

deaths in a given year.
71

confirming the descriptive findings that election periods are not necessarily more 

dangerous for opposition leaders.

Lastly, we assumed that opposition leaders who represent minority communities 

would be more vulnerable to assassination in comparison with leaders who represent a 

less cohesive constituency. This is because state agencies have less hope of mobilizing

support from the minority constituency and less incentive to do so. This hypothesis also 

didn’t receive significant support from our data. Among all opposition leaders, the 

portion of those representing minority groups was a little less than 30 percent. 

Moreover, various models confirmed that the size of excluded and discriminated 

communities, as well as level of ethnic polarization (extracted from the EPR data set),

are not associated with an increased likelihood for the assassination of opposition 

leaders.

To conclude, it seems that assassinations of opposition leaders are mainly an 

extension of wider violent intrastate clashes in weak democracies and authoritarian 

regimes, but are not significantly associated with specific levels of ethnic polarization 

and diversity or the timing of electoral processes. Since the latter are usually not 

associated with violent clashes, this serves as a further confirmation that opposition 

leaders are particularly vulnerable during times of violence. Moreover, it may suggest 

that regimes feel more comfortable to attack opposition leaders in times of all-out war, 

when it is much less clear who is responsible for such attacks, when there are multiple 

issues competing for attention, and when the opposition may be perceived as less 

legitimate.

Assassinations of Legislators

Assassinations of legislators, who in some cases are local politicians, represent a 

unique challenge for those interested in understanding the causes of political 

assassinations. To begin with, these assassinations may be related to local policies, 

which are relevant only to a specific district, state or county, or to local tribal or familial 

conflicts. In other instances, the assassination of legislators takes the form of what could 

be described as “collateral damage”; that is, they are killed by way of their proximity to 

the main target of an attack (usually the head of state). And lastly, some assassinations 

may still be more related to national-level issues and rivalries. In any case, the same set 
72

of variables that are usually helpful in identifying the factors facilitating the 

assassination of national-level leaders may not be helpful in explaining legislators’ 

assassinations.

In order to overcome this challenge an inductive method will be utilized. I will 

try to identify common trends using the data, and based on that, develop an 

explanatory model. Using this inductive approach, I hope to at least partially answer 

several relevant questions: (1) What are the contextual and political factors that trigger 

assassinations of legislators? (2) Is there any correlation between the volume of 

assassinations of other national-level leaders and legislators? (3) Are there specific 

actors who tend to target legislators?

A brief overview of the countries that experienced assassinations of legislators 

reveals that the vast majority of them are developing countries. More specifically, out of 

169 assassinations of legislators, just 13 (7.6 percent) occurred in Western Europe or in 

North America. Not surprisingly, GDP is a strong predictor of legislators’ 

assassinations (Wald=565.228***). Moreover, it seems that while the occurrence of other 

types of assassinations is positively correlated with GDP, exactly the opposite is the case 

in the assassinations of legislators.

It is also clear that a significant number of these assassinations were the result of 

severe internal conflict between a government and sub-state groups, sometimes even an 

actual revolution or a civil war. To illustrate, no less than thirty-four Iranian legislators 

were assassinated in 1981, when the new revolutionary regime was consolidating its 

control over the country. In Sri Lanka, thirteen legislators were assassinated during the 

struggle between the LTTE and the Sinhalese government between 1990 and 2009. 

Finally, in Afghanistan, twelve legislators were assassinated in just seven years (2007 to 

2014), against the backdrop of the current struggle between the Afghan government 

and the Taliban and other militant groups. The data support this anecdotal evidence, as 

more than two-thirds of the attacks occurred during periods of violent clashes within 

the state (68.1 percent). A negative binomial model found that both the occurrence of a 

civil war and its intensity are positively correlated with the probability for the 

assassinations of legislators (Wald=229.210*** and Wald=3.207* respectively).
73

These observations seem to indicate that assassinations of legislators may be 

more associated with national-level conflicts than with local ones. This conclusion is 

further supported by the fact that in countries that have experienced a high number of 

assassinations of legislators (such as India, Armenia, Lebanon, Russia and Somalia), 

most of the attacks were conducted by violent groups or government proxies focused

on affecting national-level policies rather than local ones. (Overall, 73.4 percent of the 

assassinations of legislators were perpetrated by sub-state groups, and just around 20

percent by state proxies).

On the other hand, factors related to the political structure of a polity seem to 

have a limited effect on the probability of legislators’ assassinations, as a negative 

binomial model reveals that the levels of democratization, political competition, 

executive power and political fragmentation are not correlated with the occurrence of 

legislators’ assassinations.

If indeed legislators’ assassinations are mainly a result of national-level conflicts, 

it seems reasonable to assume that some correlation exists between assassinations of 

other national-level leaders and attacks against legislators. In order to examine this 

assumption, basic correlations were examined (based on a number of assassinations per 

country-year), but these were not found meaningful. Even when looking at the 

possibility of a delayed effect, no significant correlations were identified. This is not 

completely surprising, considering that assassinations of heads of states have no 

correlation with the occurrence of civil war or violent conflicts (both strong predictors

of legislators’ assassinations) and that in general assassinations of other political figures 

are actually more probable in countries with high levels of GDP. (Again, the opposite 

trend was found in the case of legislators’ assassinations.)

To conclude, the findings presented in this section confirm that the assassination 

of legislators is a phenomenon that is mostly restricted to the developing world, as well 

as being a phenomenon that is more likely to happen in the context of violent intrastate 

conflict. When comparing these findings with the findings related to other types of 

assassinations, we see confirmation of one of the basic premises of the current study:

that it is important to recognize that different types of political assassinations are 

triggered by different sets of factors. This chapter also illustrates the importance of 
74

understanding the interactions among different types of political violence, as well as the 

facilitating factors of such violence. The concluding chapter of this study will further 

elaborate these broad insights as well as more specific findings.
75

Chapter 5: The Consequences of Political Assassinations

Introduction

Although the assassination of a political leader may have severe implications on 

various dimensions of a polity and a society, there are still cases in which it is difficult 

to identify a meaningful impact. The assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981, for example, 

didn’t lead to significant changes in the fundamentals of Egypt’s authoritarian regime 

under the National Democratic Party. It also didn’t have a long-term effect on the 

country’s foreign policy, as the peace treaty with Israel and the country’s growing 

reliance on American support were maintained. The variation in the impact of political 

assassinations and the relevancy of this issue from a theoretical and policy perspective

make it essential to identify why some political assassinations cause changes in the 

political and social environment, and the conditions in which the impact of an 

individual’s assassination is mitigated or enhanced.

But before trying to provide answers to these questions, two clarifications should 

be made. First, the scope of the current study prevents it from covering the entire 

spectrum of possible consequences of political assassination. Thus, it is intended to 

provide some preliminary indications that will hopefully provide a road map for future 

studies on the influence of political assassinations. Second, political assassinations do 

not occur in a vacuum. As was illustrated in the previous chapters, political 

assassinations are linked to both social and political processes. Hence, it can be 

challenging to separate the effect of the assassination from the impact of parallel social 

and political developments. Did the assassination of dozens of Iranian parliamentarians 

shortly after the Iranian revolution affect the political landscape in Iran, or had this 

landscape already been determined by the revolution itself? Considering this challenge, 

and since in many cases the data do not lend themselves to analyses that can help 

isolate the impact of specific events, including assassinations, we should be cautious 

about drawing definite conclusions. Nonetheless, the analyses in this chapter provide 

some important insights about the nature and extent of assassinations’ impact on 

political and social processes.

So what are the possible implications of political assassinations? Havens, Leiden 
76

and Schmitt75 noted that it is important to differentiate between the immediate personal 

impact and the macro-level impact on the sociopolitical system. They indicate that the 

latter includes: (a) cases in which there are no changes following an assassination; (b) 

personnel changes that are a direct result of an assassination (Shimon Peres replacing 

Yitzhak Rabin as the Israeli prime minster, or Lyndon Johnson replacing John F. 

Kennedy); (c) significant changes in the nature of the political system; (d) social 

revolution; and (e) collapse of the entire political system (the killing of the Archduke 

Franz Ferdinand in 1914). These categories seem too broad. For example, it is not clear 

what the difference is between social revolution and significant changes in the political 

system. Moreover, these categories are not exclusive. In order to overcome these 

problems, figure 6.1 uses more specific criteria to provide a baseline for understanding 

the possible multifaceted impact of various types of political assassinations.

Figure 6.1: Potential Implications of Political Assassinations

As can be seen, the expectation is that the assassination of a head of state 

generates the most severe impact. There is a high probability that the disappearance of 

the most important player in a political system will create instability within that system,

especially in countries with limited succession mechanisms. It may also increase 

political strife (this is especially relevant if opposition forces escalate their struggle 

 

75 Murray C. Havens, Carl Leiden and Michael M. Schmitt, The Politics of Assassination (Englewood Cliffs, 

NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970).

Head of State

Increase in 

political 

instability

Increase in 

political strife

Polarization

Economic 

instability

Opposition Leader

Increase in political 

instability

Increase in political 

strife

Polarization

Legislators

Increase in political strife Polarization/de-legitimacy
77

against the government or if supporters of the assassinated leader retaliate); and it may 

also intensify polarization within a society if the assassination was in the context of 

ethnic, religious, cultural or normative struggles. Finally, in some cases we may expect 

the political chaos caused by the assassination of a head of state to affect economic 

stability, especially when the assassination was part of broader political strife or when it 

may lead to major shifts in economic policies (for example, Libya after the assassination 

of Gaddafi).

Most of the implications of an assassination of an opposition or party leader 

relate to the way such an event affects the constituency that was supporting the 

assassinated leader. It can trigger the constituency to escalate its struggle against the 

government, or it can lead to demoralization and the decline of the opposition party or 

movement. In either case we may expect to see an impact on the level of political 

activism. When these assassinations are associated with the regime, they may become a 

trigger for significant violent clashes, and decrease the legitimacy of the government 

and the level of trust and support it enjoys. All of these effects should be reflected in 

growing political strife and instability.

In the case of the assassination of legislators, the fact that the head of state is still 

in office after the assassination helps to mitigate most of the potential implications

mentioned previously. Nonetheless, since the assassination of a legislator still 

represents a significant challenge to, or attack on, the legitimacy of a political system, it 

may produce an escalation in political strife and enhance the level of hostility, distrust 

and animosity between political parties.

The subsequent sections of this chapter will try to test the hypotheses described

so far. But before looking at the impact of specific types of assassinations, a preliminary 

analysis of the impact of assassinations on society at large will be presented.

Impact of Assassinations: General Overview

When looking at the impact of assassinations in general, empirical analyses 

reveal several important effects on the political and social environment.

Interestingly, and contrary to the perception that an assassination is an effective 
78

tool for making an immediate impact on political processes, some effects seem to 

emerge only years after an assassination. For example, as can be seen in figure 6.2, while 

overall it is clear that a decline in the democratic nature of a polity is evident following 

acts of political assassinations, the potential impact manifests itself mainly four and five 

years after the assassination. ANOVA analysis confirms that this trend is statistically 

significant (F=2.078*).

Figure 6.2: Impact of Political Assassinations on Polity Score

When looking at the impact of assassinations on GDP level, a similar trend is 

identifiable, although it is less consistent. Overall there is a significant decline in the 

GDP in the fourth and fifth years after an assassination in comparison with the level of 

GDP in the third year. Here again, the trend is statistically significant (F=18.169***).

In addition, more specific political and social variables were used in order to 

identify their association with post assassination’s dynamics. The results are presented 

in table 6.1.

Table 6.1: Post-Assassination Effect on Social and Political Characteristics*

Variable Average in Years Post-Assassination Kruskal-Wallis Test†

1 2 3 4 5

Physical Fragmentation (FRGMENT) .87 .56 .44 .38 .27 18.387***

Competitiveness of Executive 

Recruitment (XRCOMP)

1.89 .84 1.83 1.75 1.74 3.274

Openness of Executive Recruitment 

(XROPEN)

3.22 3.27 3.31 3.16 3.14 2.460

Constraint on Chief Executive 4.36 4.24 4.22 4.02 4.00 4.574

.00

.20

.40

.60

.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

1.60

1 2 3 4 5

Polity Score

Years Post Assassination
79

(XCONST)

Competitiveness of Political Participation 

(PARCOMP)

2.81 2.81 2.82 2.77 2.79 .284

Regulation of Chief Executive 

Recruitment (XRREG)

2.42 2.40 2.42 2.39 2.40 .557

Regulation of Participation (PARREG) 3.31 3.45 3.50 3.56 3.57 12.524**

Level of Competition and 

Institutionalization (POLOCOMP)

5.48 5.38 5.36 5.25 5.24 .618

Level of Polarization .686 .683 .681 .678 .696 .848

* All variables except level of polarization are from the POLITY IV data set; Polarization variable is from 

the EPR data set).

† Since the independent variable is interval/ordinal, and the dependent is ordinal, a nonparametric test, 

the Kruskal-Wallis test, was used.

As can be seen, assassinations are followed by a decrease in a physical state’s 

fragmentation, as well as a decline in political openness. The latter finding is compatible 

with the earlier finding that suggests a decline in the level of democracy following 

political assassinations. Generally, assassinations do not facilitate economic growth and 

are associated with more authoritarian practices within a polity, probably by de facto

delegitimizing of open political competition, undermining a regime’s monopoly on the 

use of force and creating a chilling effect on actors considering joining the political 

process.

Can we find similar trends when examining specific types of assassinations? The 

following sections will look into the impact of assassinations of heads of state, 

opposition leaders and legislators.

Impact of Political Assassinations: Heads of State

The analytical framework that is illustrated in Table 6.2 assumes that the major 

potential effects of assassinations of heads of state are related to a decline in political 

and economic stability and openness, as well as increasing levels of political 

polarization.

Table 6.2: Post-Assassination (of Heads of State) Effect on Social and Political 

Processes*

Variable Average in Years (Post-Assassination) ANOVA/KruskalWallis Test

1 2 3 4 5

POLITY -1.74 -1.42 -1.28 -1.31 -.83 F=13.463***

GDP (in Billions of Dollars) 458 532 461 494 513 F=5.911***
80

Physical Fragmentation (FRGMENT) .81 .90 .89 .94 .50 1.630

Competitiveness of Executive Recruitment 

(XRCOMP)

1.35 1.45 1.45 1.45 1.54 1.152

Openness of Executive Recruitment (XROPEN) 2.71 2.89 2.84 2.80 2.88 .664

Constraint on Chief Executive (XCONST) 3.39 3.56 3.60 3.50 3.64 .720

Competitiveness of Political Participation 

(PARCOMP)

2.40 2.43 2.44 2.45 2.54 .423

Regulation of Chief Executive Recruitment 

(XRREG)

2.21 2.27 2.28 2.25 2.29 .745

Regulation of Participation (PARREG) 3.70 3.72 3.67 3.75 3.73 .485

Level of Competition and Institutionalization 

(POLOCOMP)

4.16 4.25 4.29 4.29 4.49 .506

Level of Polarization .701 .693 .691 .706 .706 .198

* All variables except level of polarization are from the POLITY IV data set; the polarization variable is 

from the EPR data set.

As can be seen in table 6.2, the results illustrate some counterintuitive trends. 

Although assassinations in general are followed by a decline in the democratic 

foundations of a state, as well as by a decline in GDP, this trend is reversed in the case 

of assassinations of heads of state. Both POLITY score and GDP level actually increase

following an assassination. This may be related to the fact that assassinations of heads 

of states most often occur in authoritarian systems; therefore the elimination of a strong 

political figure may facilitate more competition within that system. As for the other 

dependent variables, the results are less definitive. None of them seems to be 

significantly affected by the occurrences of assassinations according to Kruskal-Wallis 

test; however, the trends of each variable across the five years following an

assassination seem to indicate that there is some impact on competitiveness of the 

executive branch (the system becoming more competitive), and an increase in the 

competitiveness of the political system (see the Parcomp and Polocomp variables).

These findings are hence compatible with the statistically significant increase of the 

POLITY score.

Lastly, an ordinal model with the time elapsed since the assassination as the 

independent variable was conducted in order to further verify the findings extracted 

from the analyses of variance. However, the model didn’t include any statistically 

significant independent variables.

Besides changes in the political environment, we are also interested in examining 

if the assassination of heads of state facilitates an increase in the levels of various types 
81

of political activism and violence. Thus I used data from the CNTS data set; the results 

of my analysis are presented in table 6.3.

Table 6.3: Post-Assassination (of Heads of State) Effect on Levels of Political 

Activism and Violence

Type of Political Activism Year of 

Assassination

One Year after 

Assassination

Two Years after 

Assassination

T-Test 

General Strikes .21 .12 .16 .515

Insurgent Attacks .59 .32 .34 1.988*

Government Crises .50 .36 .38 1.655

Purges .51 .24 .22 3.070**

Riots 1.38 .92 .91 1.179

Antigovernment Demonstrations 2.23 .99 1.03 1.738*

Weighted Conflict Index 3039 2115 1954 4.087***

Surprisingly, the findings indicate that a post-assassination period is 

characterized with a decline in the levels of political activism. This is particularly 

significant in the cases of insurgent attacks, purges and antigovernment 

demonstrations. In other words, the killing of a head of state acts as a tranquilizer of a

conflict rather than an escalator of it. Two explanations for this may be considered:

First, following the assassination, the regime becomes more oppressive in its treatment 

of political activism. That naturally leads to a decline in the ability and willingness of 

the population to engage in acts of political participation. This assumption, however, is 

not in line with the trend that was identified above—when analyzing the political 

variables—toward more political openness and competition. A second explanation, 

which is more compatible with the previous findings, assumes that the assassination of 

a head of state opens the political system to competition regarding who will be the 

successor. This kind of competition may facilitate new alliances within the political 

system, create a new balance of political power, and in many cases force the existing 

regime to better respond to demands from various groups or parties. This new access to 

political influence may discourage opposition groups from supporting acts of political 

activism and violence. Regardless of the actual narrative, the assassinations of heads of 

state seem to be less traumatic to a polity than suggested by previous studies.

Impact of Political Assassinations: Opposition Leader

Opposition leaders are challengers of the political status quo. Ironically, their 
82

assassination may indirectly facilitate their goals, if it is followed by further political 

instability and strife as well as greater polarization within the political system. In order 

to examine the consequences of the assassinations of political leaders who are operating 

outside the government, the effects of such assassinations on the political environment 

and the level of political activism were tested (see tables 6.4 and 6.5).

Table 6.4: Post-Assassination (of Opposition Leader) Effect on Social and Political 

Processes*

Variable Average in Years (Post-Assassination) ANOVA/KruskalWallis Test

1 2 3 4 5

POLITY 1.14 1.11 .62 .79 .70 F=.102

GDP (in Billions of Dollars) 169 195 215 252 277 F=.280

Physical Fragmentation (FRGMENT) .88 .52 .42 .44 .33 4.705

Competitiveness of Executive Recruitment 

(XRCOMP)

1.92 1.92 1.82 1.80 1.78 1.301

Openness of Executive Recruitment (XROPEN) 3.42 3.53 3.53 3.37 3.39 1.774

Constraint on Chief Executive (XCONST) 4.24 4.28 4.13 4.13 4.09 .363

Competitiveness of Political Participation 

(PARCOMP)

2.75 2.77 2.70 2.75 2.78 .189

Regulation of Chief Executive Recruitment 

(XRREG)

2.42 2.41 2.34 2.36 2.34 1.183

Regulation of Participation (PARREG) 3.33 3.35 3.38 3.37 3.41 .351

Level of Competition and Institutionalization 

(POLOCOMP)

5.24 5.30 5.14 5.30 5.30 .164

Level of Polarization .704 .709 .704 .697 .707 .131

* All variables except level of polarization are from the POLITY IV data set; the polarization 

variable is from the EPR data set.

As can be seen from table 6.4, although there are several identifiable 

consequences of assassinations, none of them is statistically significant (this may be a 

result of the fairly small number of observations in each of the groupings). These 

identifiable consequences include a decline in the level of democracy, an increase in

GDP, an increase in fragmentation, and a decline in the competitiveness of the executive 

branch. Overall, attacks against opposition leaders seem to further undermine the 

competitive nature of the political system and the willingness of opposition forces to 

operate within it.
83

Table 6.5: Post-Assassination (of Opposition Leader) Effect on Levels of Political 

Activism and Violence (all variables are from the CNTS data set)

Type of Political 

Activism

Year of 

Assassination

One Year after 

Assassination

Two Years after 

Assassination

T-Test 

General Strikes .43 .34 .24 1.174

Insurgent Attacks .98 .79 .95 .059

Government Crises .54 .42 .48 .633

Purges .58 .18 .26 1.505

Riots 1.93 1.18 1.34 1.097

Antigovernment 

Demonstrations

2.45 1.55 1.33 1.507

Weighted Conflict 

Index 

4175 3127 3140 2.199*

The findings presented in table 6.5 suggest that assassinations of opposition 

leaders tend to be followed by a decline in the level of political activism (see the 

statistically significant result of the Weighted Conflict Index). This finding is compatible 

with the overall decline in the level of political competitiveness that was indicated 

previously. To conclude, the elimination of opposition leaders further facilitates a 

decline in the democratic nature of a political system, as well as discourages the 

emergence of opposition and political participation. Nonetheless, none of the findings 

was statistically significant, which, as mentioned above, may be a result of the limited 

number of observations in each grouping. Thus, further study needs be conducted to 

more strongly confirm these initial observations.

Impact of Political Assassinations: Legislators

Legislators are probably the most diverse population of targets in terms of their 

influence, importance, and role in the political system. Hence, we can assume that it 

may be difficult to identify strong trends in terms of the impact of their assassination. 

Indeed, as table 6.6 indicates, no statistically significant trends were identified in the 

case of assassinations of legislators, although it seems that such assassinations are 

followed by some decline in the level of democracy and political competitiveness, as 

well as by increased polarization and the physical fragmentation of the polity.
84

Table 6.6: Post-Assassination (of Legislators) Effect on Social and Political 

Processes*

Variable Average in Years (Post-Assassination) ANOVA/KruskalWallis Test

1 2 3 4 5

POLITY 4.20 3.81 3.00 2.48 2.04 F=.279 

GDP (in Billions of Dollars) 250 278 284 329 395 F=549

Physical Fragmentation (FRGMENT) 1.07 .83 .78 .71 .63 .979

Competitiveness of Executive Recruitment 

(XRCOMP)

2.40 2.41 2.22 2.20 2.08 1.675

Openness of Executive Recruitment (XROPEN) 4 4 3.85 3.84 3.83 2.696

Constraint on Chief Executive (XCONST) 5.20 4.94 4.74 4.44 4.33 3.314

Competitiveness of Political Participation 

(PARCOMP)

3.29 3.25 3.19 3.12 3.17 .375

Regulation of Chief Executive Recruitment 

(XRREG)

2.63 2.63 2.59 2.56 2.50 .757

Regulation of Participation (PARREG) 2.91 2.97 3.11 3.12 3.17 1.029

Level of Competition and Institutionalization 

(POLOCOMP)

6.80 6.66 6.41 6.32 6.29 .205

Level of Polarization .567 .547 .527 .527 .502 .452

* All variables except level of polarization are from the POLITY IV data set; the Polarization 

variable is from the EPR data set.

These findings may suggest that the elimination of legislators is usually part of a 

process in which a regime consolidates its power and control over a population and

their country’s political institutions. This assumption is also supported by the findings 

presented in table 6.7. As can be seen from these results, the assassination of legislators 

is followed by a decline in the levels of political activism and political violence; the 

assassination also expedites the end of political crises.

Table 6.7: Post-Assassination (of Legislators) Effect on Levels of Political 

Activism and Violence (all variables are from the CNTS data set)

Type of Political 

Activism

Year of 

Assassination

One year after 

Assassination

Two years after 

Assassination

T-Test 

General Strikes .09 .15 .13 -1.743* 

Insurgent Attacks .72 .82 .71 -.199

Government Crises .59 .24 .27 5.107***
85

Purges .07 .04 .1 -.601

Riots .95 .68 .55 1.562

Antigovernment 

Demonstrations

2.88 1.16 .74 6.743***

Weighted Conflict 

Index 

4067.40 2548.47 2312.37 6.214***

Summary

This chapter provides insights regarding the impact of political assassinations on 

political and social processes. As expected, different types of assassinations generate

different effects, and some of them have no observable effects at all. Moreover, in many 

cases these effects are not in the same direction and do not always facilitate further 

violence. These findings not only further validate the importance of disaggregating the 

concept of political assassination, but they also illustrate that in some cases 

assassinations can be counterproductive to the desired outcomes of their perpetrators. 

Finally, while this chapter provides initial findings, further investigation of the 

outcomes of political assassinations may provide better tools for policymakers to shape 

more relevant security policies.
86

Chapter 6: Concluding Remarks

The current study aims to improve our understanding of the causes and 

implications of political assassinations by utilizing a comprehensive data set and by 

employing quantitative analyses. The findings illustrate the trends that characterize the 

phenomenon and challenge some of the existing conventions about political 

assassinations and their impact.

This study is guided by the rationale that the logic of political assassinations is 

different from that of other manifestations of political violence. Hence, it is important to 

understand the unique factors that may encourage or discourage violent groups or 

individuals from engaging in political assassinations. Moreover, it seems reasonable to 

assume that these factors vary among different types of assassinations, because in most 

cases the characteristics of the targeted individual shape the nature and objectives of the 

assassination. Indeed, our findings provide substantial support to the notion that 

different processes trigger different types of assassinations, and that in many cases the 

processes that trigger political assassinations differ from those associated with terrorism 

or insurgency. Additionally, this study establishes that different types of assassinations 

generate distinct effects on the political and social arenas, and that some types of 

political assassinations are ineffective.

In the following sections a summary of the empirical findings will be provided, 

as well as a discussion of their importance from both theoretical and policy 

perspectives.

General Observations

Although the first two decades after World War II were characterized by a 

limited number of political assassinations, the number of such attacks has risen

dramatically since the early 1970s, reflecting the emergence of a new wave of terrorist 

groups, radical and universal ideologies operating on a global scale, and a growing 

willingness by oppressive regimes to use assassinations as a tool in their treatment of 

political opposition. Indeed, while most assassinations against government officials 

were perpetrated by sub-state violent groups, most assassinations of opposition leaders 

were initiated by ruling political elites or their proxies. This important observation 
87

supports the notion that a growing number of terrorist groups see assassinations as a 

legitimate and effective tool and that one of the major obstacles for democratization is 

the vulnerability of political opposition. This study also suggests that in many cases the 

perpetrators of political assassinations are the most experienced members of their 

groups, government proxies, individuals with military training, or those with past 

service in law enfacement agencies or the military.

Finally, this study establishes the universal nature of political assassinations, as 

they are not excluded from any geographical region, nor are they unique to any type of 

regime. Moreover, in contrast to some expectations, processes of democratization can 

actually facilitate assassinations under certain conditions rather than impede them. The 

next section will further expand on this study’s conclusions regarding the factors that 

facilitate political assassinations.

Causes of Assassinations

The research findings indicate that, in general, political assassinations are more 

probable in countries that suffer from a combination of restrictions on political 

competition and strong polarization and fragmentation. More specifically, countries

that lack a consensual political ethos and homogeneous population (in terms of the 

national and ethnic landscape) and include societal groups that have a limited ability to 

affect the political processes will face a decline in the legitimacy of the political 

leadership and the political system, and an increasing likelihood for direct attacks 

against political leaders. And since these issues tend to be present mainly in times of 

electoral processes or of actual violent strife, one should not be surprised that our 

findings indicate that election periods or periods characterized by a general increase in 

domestic violence are moments when a country is more susceptible to political 

assassinations. Another interesting finding is that the territorial fragmentation of a

country is correlated with an increase in the number of assassinations. In other words, 

when a government loses control over some part of its country to opposition or rebel 

groups, both sides are more willing to use assassinations to enhance their influence and 

public recognition and to consolidate their status as the sole legitimate rulers of the 

polity.

When looking specifically at the factors that facilitate assassinations of heads of 
88

state, we can identify some unique trends. To begin, the polities most susceptible to 

assassinations against the head of state are authoritarian polities in which a leader 

enjoys significant political power but lacks regulated succession. This is especially true 

in polities that also include oppressed minorities and high levels of political 

polarization. It is important to note that these findings stand in contrast to some of the 

trends found in the entire population of assassinations (when excluding assassinations 

against heads of state), as assassinations in general tend to occur more often in countries 

with less centralized executive power and more regulated succession. Therefore, nondemocratic countries that include leaders who are able to garner significant power, but 

in which the state lacks efficient mechanisms for leadership change following an 

assassination, provide more prospects for success in advancing political changes via 

political assassination as compared with democratic systems, in which it is clear that the 

elimination of the head of state will have limited long-term impact on the sociopolitical 

order.

Although heads of state represent what could be considered the crown jewel of 

political assassinations, lower-ranking political figures also face this threat. In this 

study, we looked into cases of attacks against legislators and vice heads of state. Attacks 

against the latter are fairly rare and are usually intended to promote highly specific 

policy changes (related to policy areas under the purview of the vice head of state) or to 

prevent the vice head of state from inheriting the head of state position. In addition, we 

found that assassinated vice heads of state are often victims of new political elites who

have tried to eliminate possible challengers from the remnants of a previous regime. On 

the other hand, legislators are most often victims of civil wars or similar violent 

domestic clashes in developing countries; in democracies they are almost never 

targeted. Assassinations of legislators are almost always a result of national-level 

conflicts rather than local ones, contrary to what some may suspect. Lastly, the political 

structure of a polity seems to have a limited impact on the probability of legislators’ 

assassinations, as these assassinations are rarely perpetrated to promote specific policies 

or to gain access to the political process. In other words, the assassination of legislators 

should be considered more as acts of protest against an existing political order than 

political actions that are intended to promote specific political goals.

One of the other unique features of this study is its focus on assassinations of 
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political figures that are not part of governing platforms. Unlike other types of 

assassinations, the state is typically a major actor in assassinations against opposition 

figures. Consequently, it should not surprise us that opposition leaders are more likely 

to be targeted in authoritarian systems or in weak democracies, as in these types of 

regimes the political environment provides a space for the emergence of an opposition 

while also providing the ruling elites tools and legitimacy for oppressive measures 

against a “successful” opposition. It is also clear that opposition leaders are more 

vulnerable during violent domestic conflicts, when the number of opportunities, and 

maybe also the legitimacy to act against them, are on the rise.

Overall, our study provides a nuanced and multilevel understanding of the 

factors that contribute to the probability of political assassinations. It also further 

confirms that distinct dynamics are in process in different types of assassinations.

Impact of Political Assassinations

In many instances, political assassinations are perceived as symptoms of growing 

social unrest and a decline in the legitimacy of the sociopolitical order. The current 

study provides several important insights on this issue. In general, political 

assassinations seem to intensify prospects of a state’s fragmentation and undermine its 

democratic nature. The latter is usually manifested in a decline in political participation 

and a disproportionate increase in the strength of the executive branch.

When we looked specifically at the effects of different types of assassinations, we 

were able to find significant variations among them. For example, assassinations of 

heads of state tend to generate a decline in the democratic nature of a polity and an 

increase in domestic violence and instability. They also increase economic prosperity, 

which sounds counterintuitive but may reflect the rise of a more open economic system 

after the elimination of authoritarian ruler. The assassination of opposition leaders has a 

limited impact on the nature of a political system but has the potential to lead to an 

increase in overall unrest and domestic violence. Finally, assassinations of legislators 

are often followed by a decline in the legitimacy of the government and by public 

unrest (illustrated by growing anti-government demonstrations).

Policy Implications
90

This study illustrates that political assassinations are a constant feature in most 

polities. Our ability to improve our understanding of political processes must also 

include a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of political 

assassinations. But how can the findings presented in this study help us to understand

the potential role of policymakers in the prevention of political assassinations?

To begin, it is evident that governments can promote political and social 

conditions that may decrease the prospects of political assassinations. For example, 

while governments in polarized societies sometimes have the tendency to restrict 

political participation in order to prevent further escalation in intrastate communal 

relations, our findings indicate that this action will actually increase the probability of 

political assassinations. Moreover, in order for electoral processes to become a viable 

tool for promoting a productive and peaceful political environment, it is clear that they 

need to come after ensuring political grievances have been addressed. Otherwise,

electoral competition has the potential to instigate further violence, including the 

assassinations of political figures. The shaping of stable and regulated succession 

mechanisms is also highly important, especially in countries that are struggling to 

construct stable democratic institutions. Interestingly, while theories of democratization 

have long advocated the creation of institutions as a first step to ensure wide 

representation, followed by stable routines and protocols, the opposite order may be 

more effective for the promotion of stability and eventually a liberal-democratic 

environment.

The findings in this study also indicate that more attention needs to be given to 

the safety of the political leaders during instances of violent domestic clashes or 

transitions to democracy. Opposition leaders are most vulnerable in the early stages of 

democratization, so the effort to facilitate a democratic environment must also include 

the creation of mechanisms to ensure the safety of opposition leaders. This in turn will 

enhance the legitimacy of political participation, reduce polarization, and enhance 

political stability. Moreover, although civilian victims naturally attract most of the 

public attention during a civil war, this study highlights the need to evaluate how harm 

to political figures may be prevented, as this has significant potential to lead to further 

escalation of a conflict, especially when the assassinated figures are heads of state or 

opposition leaders.
91

This study’s findings also provide several practical insights for law enforcement. 

For example, legislators are almost never targeted in democratic countries, and in 

democratic environments sub-state groups are usually responsible for assassinations,

rather than other actors such as lone wolves, for example. In addition, basic firearms are 

almost always the preferred weapons of assassins. The few cases in which more 

sophisticated weapons were used (such as car bombs) were mostly in developing 

countries rather than in established democracies (the Irish Republican Army’s

operations in the United Kingdom being a known exception).

Finally, like all studies, this one has some clear limitations. For example, there is 

room for more in-depth examination of the socio-demographic characteristics of 

individual perpetrators, as well as the contextual make-up of each case of assassination. 

Also, further study is needed to identify the linkage among other types of political 

violence and political assassinations and how these various forms of political violence 

interact (for example, if assassinations are necessarily a reflection of a group’s changing 

strategy or are opportunity-based). Finally, there is space for inquiries that will delve 

into the moral aspects of state assassinations, as well its role in theories of just war.