2011/11/07 by Laia Balcells · 298 citations
Social Sciences · #Cleavage (geology) #Criminology #Dictatorship #Gender, Security, and Conflict #Law #Migration, Refugees, and Integration #Political Conflict and Governance #Political economy #Political repression #Political science #Political violence #Politics #Salient #Sociology #Spanish Civil War
paper · doi:10.1177/0032329211424721
published in Politics & Society 40(3), 311-347 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2011/11/07 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
This article explores the impact of war-related traumatic experiences on political identities and political behavior by exploring different pieces of empirical evidence from the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), the Franco dictatorship (1939–75), and its aftermath. On one hand, the author analyzes semistructured interviews of survivors of the civil war and the dictatorship; on the other hand, she assesses data from a specialized survey implemented on a representative sample of the Spanish population. The analyses broadly suggest that, controlling for family leanings during the civil war, victimization experiences during the civil war and the subsequent dictatorship lead to the rejection of the perpetrators’ identities along the political cleavage that was salient during the war (i.e., left–right). The survey analysis also indicates that (1) although grudges related to severe wartime violations are transmitted through generations, moderate wartime violations do not have such a long-term political impact; (2) the political effects of victimization do not increase with proximity to the traumatic events (i.e., age); and (3) victimization experiences do not have a significant impact on identities along cleavages that were not salient during the war (i.e., center–periphery).