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Material Counter-measures

There are many different possibilities to raise the costs of attacking a politician. The most important are:

Clearing large areas, for instance shutting down entire sections of cities and roads, as well as restricted access to buildings; Armored cars of which the best known is the “Popemobil” with its bulletproof glass; Bomb and weapon detectors; Bullet proof vests; Body double; or Going into seclusion.

These counter-measures are of different effectiveness depending on circumstances, and entail different costs on the person to be protected. They all serve to make an attack more difficult, raising the cost of attempting to assassinate a politician.

C. Equilibrium

Following the normal assumptions in rational choice theory, the marginal benefit of killing a politician is taken to decrease, and the marginal cost to increase with the number of attacks. The equilibrium probability of an assassination corresponds to the observed incidence of the killing of politicians.

Equilibrium of political assassinatins

MB

MC'

MB'

MC

Number of planned and actual assassinations

Fig. 3. Demand and Supply of Political Assassinations