Assassination targets dictators but modern terrorism targets democracies

Evidence

One might argue that democracies have a similar advantage. Assassination is effective in autocratic regimes and, indeed, it emerged from a society where autocracy was the norm. Then as now, much could be accomplished by the removal of a dictator, but assassin chiefs might well hesitate to waste assassins on a readily replaceable politician. Modern terrorism, mostly directed against democracies, may perhaps be the assassins’ answer to this dilemma. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 562

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does democratic resilience to decapitation actually explain the historical shift from assassination toward indiscriminate terror? The causal claim is suggestive but unproven here.