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      The Ideological Shadow of Authoritarianism

      1 , 2 , 3
      Comparative Political Studies
      SAGE Publications

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          Abstract

          How do the labels left and right take on meaning in new democracies? Existing explanations point to the universality of the left–right scheme or, reversely, emphasize regionally dominant social cleavages. We propose an alternative legacy-focused theory based on two observations: Dictatorships are not ideologically neutral and are negatively evaluated by most citizens and elites after democratization. These premises lead us to expect that when the authoritarian regime is associated with the left (right), the citizens of a new democracy will display an antileft (antiright) bias in their left–right self-identification. We test this hypothesis across Latin American and European new democracies. We find significant bias, which in the case of new democracies following left-wing regimes is concealed due to intercohort heterogeneity. Although older cohorts denote a positive bias, cohorts born after Stalin’s era denote negative bias against the left. Consistent with our expectations, repression exacerbates this bias whereas indoctrination mitigates it. Finally, we look at how these biases apply to party preferences. The findings have important implications for understanding authoritarian legacies and party system development in new democracies.

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          Most cited references70

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          Democracy and Development

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            Competitive Authoritarianism

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              An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (View ORCID Profile)
                Journal
                Comparative Political Studies
                Comparative Political Studies
                SAGE Publications
                0010-4140
                1552-3829
                October 2020
                July 07 2019
                October 2020
                : 53
                : 12
                : 1957-1991
                Affiliations
                [1 ]European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy
                [2 ]University of Oxford, UK
                [3 ]Queen Mary University of London, UK
                Article
                10.1177/0010414019852699
                8f23aba6-7423-446c-bce9-0072d0f92672
                © 2020

                http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license

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