Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:40:24.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Role of Communities in the Transmission of Political Values: Evidence from Forced Population Transfers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2021

Volha Charnysh*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Leonid Peisakhin
Affiliation:
New York University-Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This article evaluates the role of community bonds in the long-term transmission of political values. At the end of World War II, Poland's borders shifted westward, and the population from the historical region of Galicia (now partly in Ukraine) was displaced to the territory that Poland acquired from Germany. In a quasi-random process, some migrants settled in their new villages as a majority group, preserving communal ties, while others ended up in the minority. The study leverages this natural experiment of history by surveying the descendants of these Galician migrants. The research design provides an important empirical test of the theorized effect of communities on long-term value transmission, which separates the influence of family and community as two competing and complementary mechanisms. The study finds that respondents in Galicia-majority settlements are now more likely to embrace values associated with Austrian imperial rule and are more similar to respondents whose families avoided displacement.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acharya, A, Blackwell, M and Sen, M (2018) Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics. Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Barni, D et al. (2014) Parent–child value similarity across and within culture. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 45(6), 853867.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartkowski, J (2003) Tradycja i Polityka. Wpływ Tradycji Kulturowych Polskich na Współczesne Zachowania Społeczne i Polityczne [Tradition and Politics: The Influence of Polish Cultural Traditions on Contemporary Social and Political Behavior]. Warszawa: Znak [Warsaw: Znak].Google Scholar
Becker, SO et al. (2020) Forced migration and human capital: evidence from post-WWII population transfers. American Economic Review 110(5), 14301463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bisin, A and Verdier, T (2001) The economics of cultural transmission and the dynamics of preferences. Journal of Economic Theory 97, 298319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, S and Mahmoud, TO (2014) The employment effects of immigration: evidence from the mass arrival of German expellees in postwar German. The Journal of Economic History 74(1), 69108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bukowski, P (2018) How history matters for student performance. Lessons from the partitions of Poland. Journal of Comparative Economics 47(1), 136175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, A et al. (1960) The American Voter. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L and Feldman, M (1981) Cultural Transmission and Evolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Charnysh, V (2015) Historical legacies of interethnic competition: anti-Semitism and the EU referendum in Poland. Comparative Political Studies 48(13), 17111745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnysh, V (2019) Diversity, institutions, and economic development: post-WWII displacement in Poland. American Political Science Review 113(12), 423441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnysh, V and Peisakhin, L (2020) “Replication Data for: The Role of Communities in the Transmission of Political Values: Evidence from Forced Population Transfers”, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/XJB2Z8, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:oMG+6XXBzDNL+48aGsrQnQ==[fileUNF].Google Scholar
Ciesielski, S (2000) Przesiedlenie Ludności Polskiej z Kresów Wschodnich do Polski 1944–1947. Wybór Dokumentów [The Resettlemenet of Polish Population from Eastern Kresy to Poland 1944–1947. Selected Documents]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Neriton [Warsaw: Neriton Publishing House].Google Scholar
Czerniakiewicz, J (1987) Repatriacja Ludnosci Polskiej z ZSRR 1944–1948 [The Repatriation of the Polish Population from the USSR 1944–1948]. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. [Warsaw: National Science Publishing]Google Scholar
Drummond, AJ and Lubecki, J (2010) Reconstructing Galicia: mapping the cultural and civic traditions of the former Austrian Galicia in Poland and Ukraine. Europe-Asia Studies 62(8), 13111338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fouka, V (2019) How do immigrants respond to discrimination? The case of Germans in the US during World War I. American Political Science Review 113(2), 405422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giavazzi, F, Petkov, I and Schiantarelli, F (2019) Culture: persistence and evolution. Journal of Economic Growth 24(2), 117154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosfeld, I and Zhuravskaya, E (2015) Cultural vs. economic legacies of empires: evidence from the partition of Poland. Journal of Comparative Economics 43(1), 5575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guiso, L, Sapienza, P and Zingales, L (2016) Long-term persistence. Journal of the European Economic Association 14(6), 14011436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hołubecka-Zielnicowa, A (1970) Proces Społecznej Adaptacji i Intergracji Ludności Napływowej na Dolnym Śląsku na Przykładzie Wsi Dziadowa Kłoda w Powiecie Sycowskim [The Process of Social Adaptation and Integration of the Migrant Population in Lower Silesia: A Case Study of Dziadowa Kłoda in Sycow County]. Prace i Materiały Etnograficzne [Works and Ethnographic Materials] 20, 5378.Google Scholar
Ibáñez, AM and Moya, A (2010) Vulnerability of victims of civil conflicts: empirical evidence for the displaced population in Colombia. World Development 38(4), 647663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakubowska, N (2014) Między Usznią a Domaniowem: Przesiedleńcy z Kresów Wschodnich Osiedleni na Ziemiach Zachodnich [Between Usznią and Domaniów: Settlers from Eastern Kresy in Western Territories]. Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej [Wrocław Annals of Oral History] 4, 129165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jasiewicz, K (2009) ‘The past is never dead.’ Identity, class, and voting behavior in contemporary Poland. East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures 23(4), 491508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kersten, K (2001) Forced migration and the transformation of Polish society in the postwar period. In Ther, P and Siljak, A (eds), Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944–1948. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 7586.Google Scholar
Kochanowski, J (2001) Gathering Poles into Poland: forced migration from Poland's former eastern territories. In Ther, P and Siljak, A (eds), Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944–1948. Boston, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 135155.Google Scholar
Kosiński, L (1960) Ludność Ziem Zachodnich w 1950 według pochodzenia terytorialnego w podziale na ludność miejska i wiejska [The Population of Western Territories in 1950 according to Regional Origin Broken down by Urban and Rural Status]. Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Geografii. [Warsaw: Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography]Google Scholar
Kruk, GND Opowieść o życiu religijnym w Obertynie. Available from https://www.zajezdnia.org/swiadek-historia/genowefa-kruk (accessed 15 July 2019).Google Scholar
Kulczycki, JJ (2003) ‘Repatriation’: bringing Poles from the Soviet Union home after World War II. Sprawy Narodowosciowe [National Affairs] 23(1), 741.Google Scholar
Lazear, EP (1999) Culture and language. Journal of Political Economy 107(S6), S95S126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupu, N and Peisakhin, L (2017) The legacy of political violence across generations. American Journal of Political Science 61(4), 836851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machałek, M (2005) Na Poniemieckiej Ziemi: Polityka Rolna Komunistycznych Władz Na Pomorzu Zachodnim – 1945–1948 [On the post-German Land: Agricultural Policy of the Communist Authorities in West Pomerania 1945-1948]. Biuletyn IPN [IPN Bulletin] 9–10 (September): 54–60.Google Scholar
Maciorowski, M (2011) Sami Swoi i Obcy. Z Kresów na Kresy [Sami Swoi and Strangers. From Kresy to Kresy]. Warszawa: Agora S.A.Google Scholar
Myers, SM (1996) An interactive model of religiosity inheritance: the importance of family context. American Sociological Review 61(5), 858866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nalepa, M and Pop-Eleches, G (2018) Church Infiltration and Anti-Authoritarian Resistance. Survey Evidence from Communist Poland. Working Paper. Available from https://bit.ly/2Li7Sx2 (accessed 1 August 2019).Google Scholar
Nunn, N and Wantchekon, L (2011) The slave trade and the origins of mistrust in Africa. American Economic Review 101(7), 32213252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pawłowska, J (1968) Dolnośląska wieś Pracze w Powiecie Milickim [Lower Silesian Village Pracze in Milicz County]. Studium Etnograficzne [Ethnographic Studies] 25. Wrocław: Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze [Wrocław: Polish Folklore Society].Google Scholar
Piaget, J (1954) The Construction of Reality in the Child. New York: Basic Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, G and Tucker, JA (2017) Communism's Shadow: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Political Attitudes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, RD (1993) Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Samulewski, MND Opowieść o warunkach po przyjeździe do Wierzchowa [A story about life after the arrival in Wierzchowo]. Available from https://bit.ly/2xZqucu (accessed 15 July 2019).Google Scholar
Simpser, A, Slater, D and Wittenberg, J (2018) Dead but not gone: contemporary legacies of communism, imperialism, and authoritarianism. Annual Review of Political Science 21, 419439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, B (2019) A new populist divide? Correspondences of supply and demand in the 2015 Polish parliamentary elections. East European Politics & Societies and Cultures 33(1), 1743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sula, D (2002) Działalność Przesiedleńczo-Repatriacyjna Państwowego Urzędu Repatriacyjnego w Latach 1944–1951 [Resettlement and Repatriation Activity of the State Repatriation Office in 1944–1951]. Lublin: Redakcja Wydawnictw Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego [Lublin: Catholic University of Lublin Publishing House].Google Scholar
Tabellini, G (2008) Institutions and culture. Journal of the European Economic Association 6(2–3), 255294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thum, G (2011) Uprooted: How Breslau Became Wroclaw During the Century of Expulsions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Voigtländer, N and Voth, H-J (2012) Persecution perpetuated: the medieval origins of anti-Semitic violence in Nazi Germany. Quarterly Journal of Economics 127(3), 13391392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wandycz, P (1974) The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795–1918. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Wittenberg, J (2006) Crucibles of Political Loyalty: Church Institutions and Electoral Continuity in Hungary. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zarycki, T (2015) The electoral geography of Poland: between stable spatial structures and their changing interpretations. Erdkunde 69(2), 107124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Charnysh and Peisakhin supplementary material

Charnysh and Peisakhin supplementary material

Download Charnysh and Peisakhin supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 6.4 MB
Supplementary material: Link

Charnysh and Peisakhin Dataset

Link