Bowling for Fascism: Social Capital and the Rise of the Nazi Party

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Satyanath, Shanker; Voigtlander, Nico; Voth, Hans-Joachim
• 署名单位: New York University; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of Zurich
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/690949
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 478-526
• 关键词: civil-society; DEMOCRACY

摘要

Using newly collected data on association density in 229 towns and cities in interwar Germany, we show that denser social networks were associated with faster entry into the Nazi Party. The effect is large: one standard deviation higher association density is associated with at least 15 percent faster Nazi Party entry. Party membership, in turn, predicts electoral success. Social networks thus aided the rise of the Nazis that destroyed Germany's first democracy. The effects of social capital depended on the political context: in federal states with more stable governments, higher association density was not correlated with faster Nazi Party entry.