TY - JOUR

T1 - The Political Effects of Witnessing State Atrocities

T2 - Evidence from the Nazi Death Marches

AU - De Juan, Alexander

AU - Gläßel, Christian

AU - Haass, Felix

AU - Scharpf, Adam

PY - 2023/6/1

Y1 - 2023/6/1

N2 - How does witnessing regime atrocities influence the political attitudes of bystanders? We argue that observing regime violence against innocent civilians triggers psychological dissonance between beliefs about the regime and the witnessed moral transgression. As a result, regime support should decrease among bystanders of state atrocities. We analyze original, highly disaggregated archival data from the Nazi death marches at the end of World War II, which confronted ordinary German citizens with the regime’s crimes. We find that locations with higher victim numbers had lower vote shares for right-wing nationalist parties after the war. Supporting our proposed mechanism, we show that (1) this effect was strongest when Nazi crimes were at the center of public discourse and (2) that witnessing Nazi atrocities was associated with individuals’ rejection of Hitler 20 years later. The findings have implications for understanding democratization prospects and people’s nostalgia for fallen autocrats.

AB - How does witnessing regime atrocities influence the political attitudes of bystanders? We argue that observing regime violence against innocent civilians triggers psychological dissonance between beliefs about the regime and the witnessed moral transgression. As a result, regime support should decrease among bystanders of state atrocities. We analyze original, highly disaggregated archival data from the Nazi death marches at the end of World War II, which confronted ordinary German citizens with the regime’s crimes. We find that locations with higher victim numbers had lower vote shares for right-wing nationalist parties after the war. Supporting our proposed mechanism, we show that (1) this effect was strongest when Nazi crimes were at the center of public discourse and (2) that witnessing Nazi atrocities was associated with individuals’ rejection of Hitler 20 years later. The findings have implications for understanding democratization prospects and people’s nostalgia for fallen autocrats.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - repression

KW - regime breakdown

KW - voting

KW - extremisme

KW - democratization

KW - authoritarian legacy

U2 - 10.1177/00104140231178736

DO - 10.1177/00104140231178736

M3 - Journal article

JO - Comparative Political Studies

JF - Comparative Political Studies

SN - 0010-4140

ER -