The Partial Effectiveness of Indoctrination in Autocracies

Evidence from the German Democratic Republic

Bibliographic Data

ID6412422
AuthorsAlexander De Juan (0000-0002-6649-5064), Felix Haa (0000-0001-7174-2552), Jan Pierskalla (0000-0003-0483-3360)
Year2021
Volume73
Issue4
Pages593-628
Publication date2021-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8871 • E-ISSN: 1086-3338
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/s0043887121000095
OpenAlexW3197934311
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited39

Dictators depend on a committed bureaucracy to implement their policy preferences. But how do they induce loyalty and effort within their civil service? The authors study indoctrination through forced military service as a cost-effective strategy for achieving this goal. Conscription allows the regime to expose recruits, including future civil servants, to intense “political training” in a controlled environment, which should improve system engagement. To test this hypothesis, the authors analyze archival data on over 370,000 cadres from the former German Democratic Republic. Exploiting the introduction of mandatory service in the gdr in 1962 for causal identification, they find a positive effect of conscription on bureaucrats’ system engagement. Additional analyses indicate that this effect likely did not result from deep norm internalization. Findings are more compatible with the idea that political training familiarized recruits with elite preferences, allowing them to behave strategically in accordance with the rules of the game

Autocracy · Bureaucracy · Civil service · Democracy · Elite · Ideology · Indoctrination · Loyalty · Military service · Norm (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Public service · Sportsmanship · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Social Psychology