Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/329650 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] British Journal of Political Science [ISSN:] 1469-2112 [Volume:] 55 [Article No.:] e124 [Publisher:] Cambridge University Press (CUP) [Place:] Cambridge [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 1-11
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press (CUP), Cambridge
Abstract: 
A large literature has studied the effects of socialization under authoritarianism on political attitudes. In this research note, we extend this literature by demonstrating striking gender disparities in the post-transition persistence of these effects. We study the case of authoritarian indoctrination in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) using a regression kink design for causal identification. First, we draw on a unique survey fielded right before reunification to show that education under authoritarianism substantially reduced support for democratic capitalism and reunification with the West. In the second step, we triangulate multiple contemporary data sources to trace the persistence of these effects over time. More than two decades after the fall of the GDR, the attitudinal effects of authoritarian socialization persist only among men, but not women. Our results highlight considerable heterogeneity in the persistence of authoritarian legacies, raising critical questions about post-authoritarian ‘re-socialization’ and gendered adaptability.
Subjects: 
indoctrination
autocratic education
GDR
political socialization
regression kink design
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
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Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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