Indoctrination in Autocracies and Radical-Right Voting

• In Event: The Fall of Communism and Its Effect on Radical Voting: Evidence from Germany

Abstract

What are the long term consequences of education under autocracy? We study the case of East Germany, where the 1990 reunification led to cross-cohort variation in exposure to indoctrination in the GDR school system. Our identification strategy derives from a slope change in the relationship between birth year and years of education in East Germany, allowing us to estimate a regression kink design. We find strong heterogeneity by gender: for men, one additional year of education in the GDR at the cohort cutoff increases present-day support for the radical-right AfD party by two percentage points. In contrast, exposure autocratic education does not affect radical-right support among women. Additional evidence on the mechanism suggests that our results are not caused by the economic effects of delayed labor market entry after reunification. Drawing on census data, we show that affected and unaffected cohorts are indistinguishable in terms of income, employment, and occupational prestige. At the same time, affected cohorts still hold more favorable views toward the GDR today. This points to socialization as the key mechanism driving our results.

Authors

• Sascha Riaz, Harvard University

• Hanno Hilbig, Harvard University

• Daniel F. Ziblatt, Harvard University