The political economy of collective memories: Evidence from Russian politics

Alessandro Belmonte and Michael Rochlitz ()

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2019, vol. 168, issue C, 229-250

Abstract: How do political elites reactivate salient collective memories to entrench their power? We study this question examining a government-led recollection campaign of the traumatic transition the Russian population experienced during the 1990s, starting with the year 2003. Using detailed data from national-level TV and radio as well as a text analysis of 3832 regional and local newspapers, we estimate a higher electoral support for the government, and a lower support for the liberal political opposition, in regions that suffered more during the transition period, once negative memories are recalled on state-controlled media. We then provide additional evidence on the mechanism at play, and show how the effect of the newspaper-based recollection campaign is stronger in regions that feature less political competition, and where the governor is a member of the ruling party United Russia.

Keywords: Collective memory; Selective recollection of the past; Voting; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 D83 P16 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:168:y:2019:i:c:p:229-250

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.10.009

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