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The German elections in the 1870s: why Germany turned from liberalism to protectionism

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  • Sibylle Lehmann

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn)

Abstract

In 1878 the liberal parties lost enough votes to loose the majority in the parliament which they had defended in the general election just one year before. In this paper, the question of where the voters came from and why the voting changed so crucially within one year are re-examined. The analysis uses a new set of data aggregated at a lower level than those examined by previous stud-ies and makes use of King’s Algorithm, a tool provided by modern political science. The main finding of this paper is that the change towards protectionism was not caused by new, but by floating voters from the agricultural sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Sibylle Lehmann, 2009. "The German elections in the 1870s: why Germany turned from liberalism to protectionism," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2009_34, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2009_34
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6flqrv4et09btppk9s58qgp979 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Cagé, Julia & Gadenne, Lucie, 2018. "Tax revenues and the fiscal cost of trade liberalization, 1792–2006," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-24.
    5. Patrick Alexander & Ian Keay, 2018. "Responding to the First Era of Globalization: Canadian Trade Policy, 1870–1913," Staff Working Papers 18-42, Bank of Canada.
    6. Lehmann, Sibylle & Volckart, Oliver, 2011. "The political economy of agricultural protection: Sweden 1887," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 29-59, April.
    7. Kersting, Felix, 2017. "Coal and Blood: Industrialization and the Rise of Nationalism in Prussia before 1914," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 52, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    8. Thilo R. Huning & Fabian Wahl, 2016. "You Reap What You Know: Observability of Soil Quality, and Political Fragmentation," Working Papers 0101, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    9. VAN DIJCK, Maarten & TRUYTS, Tom, 2014. "The agricultural invasion and the political economy of agricultural trade policy in Belgium, 1875-1900," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2014002, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H83 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Public Administration
    • N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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