The Institute for Global Governance Research (GGR) is delighted to announce that we will host a talk session on March 10, 2023. Please register at the pre-registration site below if you would like to attend.

■Overview:
How do experiences of authoritarian regimes affect people’s political attitudes? Despite democratisation, more than a quarter of former authoritarian ruling parties regained power, and almost a half became significant competitors in many democracies. The phenomena raise the question of whether the authoritarian regimes’ legacy still affects people’s political attitudes in favour of the past regimes in the name of political nostalgia even after democracy.

To answer the question, it is essential to examine the epicentre of nostalgia at three temporal points: living under an authoritarian regime (which will be mainly discussed in this presentation), during the transition to democracy, and after achieving consolidated democracy.

Multilevel analyses of nine representative countries reveal that economic legitimacy and length of exposure to authoritarian regimes positively affect the political nostalgia toward the authoritarian successor parties. Moreover, indoctrination under the authoritarian regime was found to be more effective in fuelling desires for strong leadership even after democratisation, as opposed to repression.