Kill joy: Sic semper tyrannis.

• Author: Moynihan, Michael C.
• Position: Brief article

LIVING UNDER the bootheel of a dictatorship ? An academic study suggests that taking a potshot at your oppressor might lead to greater democracy.

In "Hit or Miss?: The Effect of Assassinations on Institutions and War," a working paper published last year by the National Bureau for Economic Research and several other institutions, economists Ben Olken of Harvard and Ben Jones of Northwestern look at 298 attempted and 59 successful assassinations of both autocratic and democratic leaders between 1875 and 2004. They find that "on average, successful assassinations of autocrats produce sustained moves toward democracy." Indeed, "transitions to democracy ... are 13 percentage points more likely following the assassination of an...