[en] This study exposes post-war voters’ fiscal liberalism using individual level and aggregate-level data covering a decade and a half of local electoral competition in post-war Croatia. Aggregate-level analysis shows Croatian voters’ fiscal liberalism to be conditional on their communities’ exposure to war violence: greater exposure to violence leads to greater support for fiscally expansionist incumbents. Individual-level analysis, on the other hand, shows post-war voters’ fiscal liberalism as rooted in their different levels of war-related trauma: more feelings of war-related trauma lead to greater economic expectations from the government. Our analysis also shows that voters’ war-conditioned preferences for fiscally expansionist incumbents show little sign of abating over time – a testament to the challenge presented by post-war recovery, and to the impact war exerts on political life long after the bloodshed has ended.
Disciplines :
Political science, public administration & international relations
Author, co-author :
Glaurdic, Josip ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Identités, Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces (IPSE)
Vukovic, Vuk; University of Oxford > Politics and International Relations
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Post-war voters as fiscal liberals: local elections, spending, and war trauma in contemporary Croatia
Publication date :
02 April 2018
Journal title :
East European Politics
ISSN :
2159-9173
Publisher :
Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, United Kingdom
Volume :
34
Issue :
2
Pages :
173-193
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
European Projects :
H2020 - 714589 - ELWar - Electoral Legacies of War: Political Competition in Postwar Southeast Europe
Name of the research project :
Electoral Legacies of War: Political Competition in Postwar Southeast Europe
Funders :
Leverhulme Trust, Isaac Newton Trust, European Research Council CE - Commission Européenne [BE]