The main interest of this research is to analyse political responses to the Madrid terrorist attack in 2004 in three different levels: 1) Political crisis governance (including public information policy), 2) civic activism, and 3) electoral behaviour in the parliamentary elections that were held four days after the attack. Results of this analysis are compared to the existing theories on terrorism.

Putting it simply, the results of the research are: 1) Common perception, that terrorist attacks are beneficial for the ruling elites because the "rally around the flag effect" facilitates exceptional policies both in the fight against terrorism and in other issues is too simplistic to be considered as a rule. 2)The case of Madrid demonstrated, that in an open society controlling the media (and thereby public opinion formation) for political purposes is not possible, 3) citizens are not passive nor uncritical when a crisis situation (more widely, foreign policy)is appraised as personally relevant. People can mobilize very quickly and spontaneously when they feel it is necessary. 4) Even though terrorist attacks cause fear and terror, the effects of these emotions are overestimated. Politically much more relevant emotions are anger and irritation, since they are more likely to lead into activism. 5) An act of terrorism activate the voters and get them focused on the issues related to the act and its consequences. Interpreted demands of the terrorists, response policy of the Government, and alternative policy proposition of the Opposition played all part of the whole context, where the responses to the attack were formed. In the studied case the attack and its aftermath had an undeniable impact on the electoral behaviour, but due to the complex dynamics of the political responses to terrorism, the electoral overturn cannot be counted as a "victory" for the terrorists, but as a "defeat" for a policy that underestimates the core foundation of conventional democratic political systems: the people.

The aim of this dissertation is to offer a theoretical model on the dynamics of political responses to acts of terrorism. The model is based on the factors that are relevant in the appraisal processes of the individuals. These factors lead to specific emotional responses, and furthermore, to certain types of political activism.