Intergroup contact and nation building: Evidence from military service in Spain

Abstract

We study the long-term effects of intergroup contact on nation building by exploiting a national lottery that randomly allocated conscripts to different military areas across Spain. For men born in regions featuring a strong regional identity, we find that being assigned to military service in a region different from one's region of birth substantially increases self-identification as Spanish and reduces the likelihood of voting for a regionalist party. Moreover, in support of intergroup contact as the main mechanism behind these results, we find that movers are more likely to have friends from another region than nonmovers.

Loose Cannons: War Veterans and the Erosion of Democracy in Weimar Germany

“…This non-violent rebellion eventually led to the proclamation of the German Republic on the 9th of November (Büttner 2008). Two days later, WWI was officially ended by an armistice after four years of fighting and more than 10 m soldiers killed (Prost 2014).…”

“…See, for instance,Voigtländer and Voth (2012),Adena et al (2015),Satyanath, Voigtländer, andVoth (2017), andGalofré-Vilà et al (2021).3 Closely related work includeGrossman, Manekin, and Miodownik (2015),Cagé et al (2020),Weaver (2020),Cáceres-Delpiano et al (2021), andNavajas et al (2022).…”

National Identity, Public Goods, and Modern Economic Development

“…Our first category of relevant country-level factors involves compulsory forms of political and social participation. Prior literature has characterized the process of nation building via centralized institutions that homogenize citizens and bring their actions and ideals into alignment with those of state elites, such as public education and the military (Alesina et al, 2021;Almagro and Andres-Cerezo, 2020;Caceres-Delpiano et al, 2021;Miguel, 2004). In our analysis, we consider whether a country had a military draft during the sample period, using data from Asal et al (2015); whether it had compulsory voting laws, using data from the Voter Turnout Database (2022); and a country's years of compulsory education, using countries' sample average from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (2022) database.…”

“…24 War and Conflict. The second category of country-level NI determinants involves conflict (Caceres-Delpiano et al, 2021;Gehring, 2021;Sambanis et al, 2015). Declarations of war are often associated with "rally-round-the-flag" effects and may bridge divides among the masses and between the masses and elites.…”

Unity in Diversity? How Intergroup Contact Can Foster Nation Building

“…However, rising geographic mobility has stoked concerns that growing local diversity may undermine this nation-building objective. 2 This paper asks how intergroup contact affects the intergenerational process of nation building. Competing views abound in the social sciences.…”