Political criminogenesis of democracy in the colonial settler‐state: Terror, terrorism, and guerrilla warfare

Abstract Terror, terrorism, and guerrilla warfare are distinct phenomena. The analysis of the social‐cultural‐historical context of the colonial settler‐state, with particular emphasis on South Africa, Fiji, and New Caledonia, clarifies the differences between terror, terrorism, and guerrilla warfare while noting the reasons that indigenous political extremists rationalize their violence. Such an analysis reveals that past demographic engineering by colonial powers or their overseas representatives in the form of the state has resulted in a current sociopolitical reality in which democracy denoted by one‐person, one‐vote enfranchisement may ensure the continued subordination of the colonized indigenous population, thus resulting in the turn to terror, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare by radical sectors of the numerically inferior indigenous population.