Lustration and Support for Democracy: Evidence from Post-War Germany

We analyze the political consequences of different approaches to post-authoritarian lustration by analyzing the effects of denazification policy differences between the three Western occupation zones in post-WWII Germany. We show that the tougher approach to denazification in the US zone was less conducive to the development of democratic attitudes than the more lenient lustration approach in the British zone and the mixed approach in the French zone. We trace these differences to the highly uneven effects of different levels of lustration, with more comparatively mild low-level lustration yielding much greater democratic dividends than the more widespread imposition of harsh penalties against Nazi elites.