Historical Roots of Political Extremism: The Effects of Nazi Occupation of Italy

Nicola Fontana, Tommaso Nannicini and Guido Tabellini

No 618, Working Papers from IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University

Abstract: The Italian civil war and the Nazi occupation of Italy occurred at a critical juncture, just before the birth of a new democracy. We study the impact of these traumatic events by exploiting geographic heterogeneity in the duration and intensity of civil war, and the persistence of the battlefront along the “Gothic line†cutting through Northern-Central Italy. We find that the Communist Party gained votes in postwar elections where the Nazi occupation lasted longer, mainly at the expense of centrist parties. This effect persists until the late 1980s and appears to be driven by equally persistent changes in political attitudes.

Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-pol and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Journal Article: Historical roots of political extremism: The effects of Nazi occupation of Italy (2023)
Working Paper: Historical Roots of Political Extremism: The Effects of Nazi Occupation of Italy (2017)
Working Paper: Historical Roots of Political Extremism: The Effects of Nazi Occupation of Italy (2017)
Working Paper: Historical Roots of Political Extremism: The Effects of Nazi Occupation of Italy (2017)
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