Systems of Mass Denunciation

• In Event: 477 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Culture, Media, and Socialization 2

Abstract

The act of individuals accusing one another to political or religious authorities for transgressions against those authorities—denunciations—is a recurring and ubiquitous phenomenon throughout human history. Denunciation has taken on such importance that it has been known to characterize entire societies, spanning Early Modern Spain (the Spanish Inquisition), East Germany, and China during the Cultural Revolution. In this paper, I develop a general theory of how these systems are implemented, how they function, and what types of dyadic relationships lead individuals to denounce. By applying this theory to three case studies—the Spanish Inquisition, Early Modern Russia, and Nazi Germany—I validate the hypotheses and provide evidence that the potential for denunciation regimes lies embedded in the nature of social relationships.

Author

• Patrick Bergemann, Stanford University