On war and political radicalization: Evidence from forced conscription into the Wehrmacht

This paper investigates when and how political preferences that were shaped by conflict express themselves into electoral outcomes. During World War II, the Third Reich annexed the French eastern borderlands and forcibly conscripted their inhabitants into the Wehrmacht. While conscription was introduced in both annexed regions, the administrators’ independence gave them broad discretion on how to apply the policy. As a result, different birth cohorts were drafted in different regions. I show that individuals conscripted and their descendants display reduced levels of political trust. This attitude is not reflected into aggregate municipal electoral outcomes at once. It translates into voting only with the emergence of parties that are large enough and radical enough. In the absence of parties that fulfill both conditions, these preferences lead to higher abstention.