Ronald Wintrobe is Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario, where he also co-directs the Political Economy Research Group. Professor Wintrobe is the author of The Political Economy of Dictatorship (1998), and coauthor (with Albert Breton) of The Logic of Bureaucratic Conduct (1982). He is also coeditor (with Albert Breton, Gianluigi Galeotti and Pierre Salmon) of Rational Foundations of Democratic Politics (2003), Political Extremism and Rationality (2002), Understanding Democracy: Economic and Political Perspectives (1997) and Nationalism and Rationality (1995). All of the above titles were published by Cambridge University Press. He is also author or coauthor of many book chapters and articles in leading professional journals, and has written two radio programs on political economy for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Introduction
1. The problem of extremism
Part I. Groups: 2. Social interactions, trust and group solidarity
3. Some illustrations and a general framework
Part II. Extremism: 4. The calculus of discontent
5. Can suicide bombing be rational?
6. Religion and suicide terror
Part III. Revolutions, Nationalism and Jihad: 7. Rational revolutions
8. Slobodan Milosevic and the fire of nationalism
9. 'Jihad vs McWorld' revisited
Conclusion
10. Summary of propositions and policy implications.
