Representation and Right-Wing Violence: Evidence from Nazi Street Brawls

• In Event: Right-Wing Populism

Abstract

A core promise of democracy is to transform political violence into non-violent, institutionalized conflict in parliament. But elections can also incite bloodshed: they can trigger grievances among election losers and equip election winners who oppose democracy---such as the far right---with resources to orchestrate even more violence. Does parliamentary representation curb or fuel right-wing street violence? We investigate this question in the context of Nazi street violence in the aftermath of the July 1932 Reichstag elections in Weimar Germany. We match the home towns of Nazi party candidates to locations of street violence from digitized Prussian police records. Exploiting the randomness between candidates who did and did not receive just enough votes to attain a Reichstag seat we identify the effects of Nazi representation in parliament on street brawls in the Weimar Republic. Initial results indicate that parliamentary representation led to more street violence, especially when Nazi representatives had links to the Nazi paramilitary organization, the SA. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of post-election violence, consequences of right-wing representation, and democratic stability.

Authors

• Alexander De Juan, Osnabrück University

• Felix Haass, University of Oslo

• Daniel Bischof, Aarhus University

• Henry Thomson, Arizona State University