Communist Legacies, Political Socialization and Electoral Turnout in Central and Eastern Europe

Research on electoral behavior in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has disputed successfully the assumption of tabula rasa and by now we know that previous political experiences affect the way in which post-communist citizens behave in democracies. One of the explanations of lower levels of civic participation in CEE points to the legacy of communist authoritarian regimes (Howard 2003; Pop-Eleches and Tucker 2013). However, we still lack a causal mechanism explaining this outcome. Is it a result of the violent imposition of organizational life under communism (Bernhard and Karakoc 2007) or is the lack of trust in political parties and the government (Rose 1995; Sztompka 2000) that drives low electoral turnout in the post-communist countries? Is it an institutional or an individual-based legacy? The goal of this paper is to shed some light on the relationship between low electoral turnout in CEE countries and the communist past by relating the historical legacies literature to political socialization theory. The individual-level experience of being socialized politically during various stages of authoritarian regime (plus during transition years) and its influence on electoral turnout are evaluated for 10 CEE countries. Data from all modules of CSES surveys and CEU 1992 and 1994 are used to provide evidence for both within-country and cross-country differences in the probability of turning out to vote.