Record Details

Replication Data for: The Burden of a Violent Past. Formative Experiences of Repression and Support for Secession in Catalonia

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Replication Data for: The Burden of a Violent Past. Formative Experiences of Repression and Support for Secession in Catalonia
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/X8SC8B
 
Creator Rodon, Toni
Tormos, Raül
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description This research note studies the impact of past violence and repression on current territorial preferences in a contemporary democracy. Does a violent past lay the grounds for pro-secessionist preferences or does it lead individuals to cling on to the territorial status quo? We study whether exposure to the events of the Spanish Civil War and its immediate aftermath made people more or less likely to support Catalan secession from Spain. Our analysis employs a dataset that combines a large N of individual-level survey data with historical data about repression and violence in each Catalan municipality. Findings indicate that current preferences for secession tend to diminish among the oldest Catalan generation that was exposed to higher levels of violence in their municipality. Most crucially, we show exposure to violence created a sense of apathy towards politics among the oldest cohort, which eventually leads to a lower predisposition to support secession, a feeling that was not transmitted to the next generations. Our findings qualify some of the existing knowledge on the effects of past political violence on present political attitudes.
 
Subject Social Sciences
Repression, Secession, Independence, Catalonia, Spain, Survey
 
Contributor Rodon, Toni