The Complex Imprint of Foreign Rule: Tracking Differential Legacies along the Administrative Hierarchy

Abstract

Could imperial rule affect state institutions at the national, regional, and local level differently? No systematic theory to answer this question exists, which is surprising given the importance that is attributed to foreign rule for political-administrative organization around the world. The effectiveness of imperial rule may differ along the administrative hierarchy because empires are often subject to financial constraints, limits on organizational capabilities, and informational asymmetries. Therefore, a commonly used approach—aggregation at the national level—may yield erroneous findings about colonial legacies by ignoring vital nuances. To address this gap, I develop a novel theory of imperial pervasiveness and test it through a number of statistical analyses. Leveraging an original dataset of citizen perceptions of state institutions in Romania, this study reveals vastly different long-term effects of historical Habsburg rule at the regional and local levels. The results indicate that we need to rethink the study of colonial origins.

When are Junctures Critical? The Legacies and Non-Legacies of Interruptions in Local Self-Government

“…Studies examining contemporary differences across Italian regions strongly suggest that extended experiences with self-government-even if in the highly distant past-are relevant for outcomes such as civic engagement (Putnam, Leonardi and Nanetti, 1993, 121-162), the belief that one's actions can meaningfully shape life prospects , and economic development (Di Liberto and Sideri, 2015). Research on local interventions under authoritarianism paints a similar picture, tying autocratic interventions to persistent anti-democratic attitudes and poor governance outcomes in countries including Chile (González, Muñoz andPrem, 2021), Indonesia (Martinez-Bravo, 2014;Martinez-Bravo, Mukherjee and Stegmann, 2017), Romania (Vogler, 2022), and Vietnam (Dell, Lane and Querubin, 2018). Also conforming with this perspective is scholarship on Soviet intervention in Eastern Europe, which it links to attitudes hostile to democracy (Besley and Persson, 2019;Neundorf, 2010;.…”

When are Junctures Critical? The Legacies and Non-Legacies of Interruptions in Local Self-Government

“…Analyses examining contemporary differences across Italian regions suggest that extended experiences with self-government are relevant for outcomes such as civic engagement (Putnam, Leonardi and Nanetti, 1993, 121-162), the belief that one's actions can meaningfully shape life prospects , and economic development (Di Liberto and Sideri, 2015). Research on local interventions under authoritarianism ties autocratic interventions to persistent anti-democratic attitudes and poor governance outcomes in countries including Chile (González, Muñoz and Prem, 2021), Indonesia (Martinez-Bravo, 2014;Martinez-Bravo, Mukherjee and Stegmann, 2017), Romania (Vogler, 2023), and Vietnam (Dell, Lane and Querubin, 2018). Similarly, scholarship on lived experiences with communism links the absence of self-government to attitudes hostile to democracy (Besley and Persson, 2019;Neundorf, 2010;Pop-Eleches and Tucker, 2017).…”