Historical Anti-Fascism and Right-Wing Voting in Italy

Abstract

We study how anti-fascist opposition during Mussolini’s dictatorship affects post-war support for right-wing parties in Italy. We construct a measure of anti-fascism from the universe of recorded opponents, and use newly digitized historical data to resolve simultaneity between the supply of opposition and the demand for repression, leveraging the random assignment of judges to the Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State. Stronger local opposition leads to weaker support for right-wing parties decades later. Our model generates predictions about underlying mechanisms, tested using data on collective memorialization and parental voting behavior. The main driver is social transmission of political preferences.