A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Martinez, Luis R.; Jessen, JoNAS; Xu, Guo
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20200456
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 68-106
• 关键词: Electoral accountability; counterinsurgency

摘要

This paper exploits the idiosyncratic line of contact separating Allied and Soviet troops within East Germany at the end of WWII to study political resistance in a non-democracy. When Nazi Germany surrendered, 40 percent of what would become the authoritarian German Democratic Republic was initially under Allied control but was ceded to Soviet control less than two months later. Brief Allied exposure increased protests during the major 1953 uprising. We use novel data on the appointment of local mayors and a retrospective survey to argue that even a glimpse of freedom can foster civilian opposition to dictatorship. (JEL D72, D74, N44, P16)