Lustration and Political Attitudes: Evidence from Post-War Germany

In this paper we analyze the political consequences of different approaches to post-authoritarian lustration by analyzing the effects of denazification policy differences in between the three Western occupation zones in post-WWII Germany. We show that the tougher approach to denazification in the US and to a somewhat lesser extent the French zones was effective in reducing support for nationalist parties and a single party regime, these gains came at the cost of lower turnout and satisfaction with democratic parties and were ineffective in triggering a broader re-evaluation of the Nazi past.