Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Koenig, Christoph

Titel

Loose Cannons: War Veterans and the Erosion of Democracy in Weimar Germany

Ist Teil von

• The Journal of economic history, 2023-03, Vol.83 (1), p.167-202

Ort / Verlag

New York, USA: Cambridge University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This article shows that democracy in Weimar Germany was eroded by the political legacy of WWI. Using novel data on WWI veterans and an election panel from 1893–1933, I find that former soldiers are associated with a sizeable, persistent, and momentous shift in political preferences from left to right. I provide suggestive evidence that war participation made veterans highly receptive to nationalism and Anti-Communism. This alienated them from leftwing parties and drove the majority toward the political right. Contrary to historical accounts, veterans’ shifts in political preferences cannot be explained by exposure to violence or other polarizing post-war events.