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Charnysh, V. 2024. Uprooted: How Post-WWII Population Transfers Remade Europe. Cambridge University Press, Studies in Comparative Politics. Order on Amazon.
Charnysh, V. and S. Riaz. 2023. "After the Genocide: Proximity to Victims and Support for Punishing Ingroup Crimes." Comparative Political Studies. Show abstract
What explains divergent transitional justice preferences among political elites after genocide? We argue that elite preferences vary with their proximity to the victimized group. Individuals who know the victims personally and/or have witnessed violence against them may be more likely to support punishing the perpetrators, possibly because they experience collective guilt. We support this argument using an original biographical dataset on the members of the West German parliament, linking their location and experiences during the Third Reich to free roll-call votes on extending the statute of limitations for murder in 1965-69. We find that proximity to synagogues, particularly those attacked in November 1938, predicts support for extending the statute, conditional on party, state, mandate type, denomination, and a host of personal attributes. We also find significantly lower support for extending the statute among former NSDAP members. Our findings highlight the importance of bystander experiences in shaping support for retributive justice.
Charnysh, V, E. Finkel, and S. Gehlbach. (2023) "Historical Political Economy: Past, Present, and Future." Annual Review of Political Science 26. Show abstract
A recent wave of research in political science examines the past using statistical methods for causal inference and formal theory---a field widely known as historical political economy (HPE). We examine the development of this field. Our survey reveals three common uses of history in HPE: understanding the past for its own sake, using the past to understand the present, and using history as a setting to explore theoretical conjectures. We present important work in each area and discuss tradeoffs of each approach. We further identify key practical and analytical challenges for scholars of HPE, including the accessibility of data that do exist and obstacles to inference when they do not. Looking to the future, we see improved training for scholars entering the field, a heightened focus on the accumulation of knowledge, and greater attention to underexplored topics such as race, gender, ethnicity, and climate change.
Charnysh, V. 2022. "Explaining out-group bias in weak states: Religion and legibility in the 1891/92 Russian famine." World Politics 74 (2): 205-248.
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Two dominant explanations for ethnic bias in distributional outcomes are electoral incentives and out-group prejudice. This article proposes a novel and complementary explanation for the phenomenon: variation in legibility across ethnic groups. The author argues that states will allocate fewer resources to groups from which they cannot gather accurate information or collect taxes. The argument is supported by original data on state aid from the 1891/1892 famine in the Russian Empire. Qualitative and quantitative analyses show that districts with a larger Muslim population experienced higher famine mortality and received less generous public assistance. The Muslims, historically ruled via religious intermediaries, were less legible and generated lower fiscal revenues. State officials could not guarantee the repayment of food loans or collect tax arrears from Muslim communes, so they were more likely to withhold aid. State relief did not vary with the presence of other minorities that were more legible and generated more revenue.
Charnysh, V. and L. Peisakhin. 2021. "The Role of Communities in the Transmission of Political Values." The British Journal of Political Science: 1-21.
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This article evaluates the role of community bonds in the long-term transmission of political values. At the end of World War II, Poland’s borders shifted westward, and the population from the historical region of Galicia (now partly in Ukraine) was displaced to the territory that Poland acquired from Germany. In a quasi-random process, some migrants settled in their new villages as a majority group, preserving communal ties, while others ended up in the minority. The study leverages this natural experiment of history by surveying the descendants of these Galician migrants. The research design provides an important empirical test of the theorized effect of communities on long-term value transmission, which separates the influence of family and community as two competing and complementary mechanisms. The study finds that respondents in Galicia-majority settlements are now more likely to embrace values associated with Austrian imperial rule and are more similar to respondents whose families avoided displacement.
Charnysh, V. 2019. "Diversity, Institutions, and Economic Outcomes: Post-WWII Displacement in Poland." American
Political Science Review 113 (12): 423-441.
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How does an increase in cultural diversity
affect state–society interactions? Do institutional differences between heterogeneous and homogeneous
communities influence economic activity? I argue that heterogeneity not only impedes informal cooperation
but also increases demand for third-party enforcement provided by the state. Over time, the greater
willingness of heterogeneous communities to engage with state institutions facilitates the accumulation of
state capacity and, in common-interest states, promotes private economic activity. I test this argument
using original data on post-WWII population transfers in Poland. I find that homogeneous migrant
communities were initially more successful in providing local public goods through informal enforcement,
while heterogeneous migrant communities relied on the state for the provision of public goods.
Economically similar during state socialism, heterogeneous communities collected higher tax revenues and
registered higher incomes and entrepreneurship rates following the transition to the market. These
findings challenge the predominant view of diversity as harmful to economic development.
Charnysh, V., E. Finkel. 2017. "The Death Camp
Eldorado: Political and Economic Effects of Mass Violence." American Political
Science Review 111 (4): 801-818.
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Transfer and redistribution of wealth accompany
most violent conflicts throughout the world, yet the local-level political and economic effects of this
phenomenon remain unexplored. We address
this omission by examining the long-term impact on the surrounding communities of the Nazi
death camp Treblinka in Poland, where nearly a million Jews were murdered. The assets of murdered
Jews sometimes ended up in the hands of the local population. We are able to identify the enduring
impact of these property transfers on local economic and political outcomes because the exact location
of Treblinka was exogenous to the characteristics of surrounding communities. We find that communities
located closer to the camp experienced a real estate boom but do not exhibit higher levels of economic
and social development. These communities also showed higher support for an anti-Semitic party, the
League of Polish Families. Our findings speak to an important but overlooked challenge to post-conflict
reconstruction and reconciliation.
Charnysh, V., S. Markus. 2017. "The Flexible Few: Oligarchs and
Wealth Defense in Developing Democracies". Comparative Political Studies 50
(12): 1632–1665.
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Based on an original large-N dataset of
individual Ukrainian oligarchs and
qualitative evidence, we test competing perspectives on the political power
of big capital. We find, surprisingly, that neither the assumption of direct
power by the oligarchs, nor the mobility of oligarchic assets, help tycoons
protect their fortunes against shocks. Instead, the indirect strategies of
party support and media ownership significantly enhance business wealth.
Empirically, we profile postcommunist oligarchs by examining the political
and economic activities of 177 Ukrainian oligarchs from 2006 to 2012.
Theoretically, we contribute to the literatures on instrumental and
structural power of capital, and on the interactions between extreme
wealth, rule of law, and democracy. In doing so, we contrast the logic of
flexibility, according to which oligarchs benefit from political adaptability
and deniability, with the logic of commitment compensation, according to
which oligarchs benefit from direct power when the rule of law is weak.
Charnysh, V. 2015. “Historical Legacies of Interethnic
Competition: Anti-Semitism and the EU Referendum in Poland.” Comparative Political
Studies 48 (13): 1711-1745.
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How do historical legacies shape contemporary
political outcomes? The article proposes a novel attitudinal mechanism through which distant interethnic
competition can influence political preferences in the present. It theorizes that historically conditioned
predispositions at the local level can moderate the effects of national-level framing of a policy issue.
Using Poland as a test case, I show that subnational variation in support for EU accession was influenced
by populist claims about the increase in Jewish influence in the postaccession period. Anti-Semitic cues
resonated with voters in areas with historically large Jewish populations and a contentious interethnic
past, where latent anti-Semitism persisted throughout the communist period. To provide evidence for this
argument, the article draws on rich historical and contemporary data at the county, town, and individual
level of analysis and utilizes novel research methods.
Charnysh, V., P. Lloyd, B.A. Simmons. 2015. "Frames and Consensus in International Relations: the Case
of Human Trafficking." European Journal of International Relations 21 (2):
323-351.
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This article examines the process of consensus
formation by the international community regarding how to confront the problem of trafficking in persons.
We analyze the corpus of United Nations General Assembly Third Committee resolutions to show that: (1)
consensus around the issue of how to confront trafficking in persons has increased over time; and (2) the
formation of this consensus depends upon how the issue is framed. We test our argument by examining the
characteristics of resolutions’ sponsors and discursive framing concepts such as crime, human rights, and
the strength of enforcement language. We conclude that the consensus-formation process in international
relations is more aptly described as one of ‘accommodation’ through issue linkage than a process of
persuasion.
Charnysh, V., C. Lucas, P. Singh. 2015. “The
Ties that Bind: National Identity Salience and Pro-Social Behavior.” Comparative
Political Studies 48 (3): 267-300.
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At the psychological level, ethnic conflict can
be seen as an extreme result of normal group identification processes. Bridging perceived intergroup
boundaries is therefore key to improving intergroup relations. In contrast to the dominant association of
nationalism with racism, chauvinism, xenophobia, and intolerance, we highlight the constructive potential
of national identification. In a survey experiment, we find that the increased salience of a shared
(Indian) national identity increases donations by members of a dominant ethnic group (Hindus) to members
of a rival, minority group (Muslims). This effect is moderated by social status (caste). We suggest that
national identification leads to a greater transformation in the behavior of low-status members of an
ethnic group because they are more likely to be drawn to national identity as an enhancement of their
social standing. Our study has implications for theories of social identity and interethnic cooperation,
as well as for the literature on nationalism.
Charnysh V. 2013. "Identity Mobilization in
Hybrid Regimes: Language in Ukrainian Politics." Nationalities Papers 41 (1) :
1-14.
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In 2012, a new language law in Ukraine allowed
cities and regions to elevate the status of any minority language spoken by at least 10% of their
population to “official” alongside Ukrainian. I argue that the law fails to protect genuine linguistic
minorities and is likely to further undermine linguistic diversity in certain Ukrainian regions. More
important, the law prolongs the vicious circle between Ukraine's lack of democracy and its politicians'
reliance on identity cleavages to gather votes. I argue that the continuing exploitation of identity
divides is increasing the popularity of extreme right parties and widening the gap in policy preferences
between Ukrainian and Russian speakers. However, the current ethno-regional cleavages do not stand for
irreconcilable identity attachments and their impact can be mitigated. The EU could contribute to this
outcome by providing expert opinions on minority and language rights; demonstrating a commitment to
Ukraine's territorial integrity and independence to de-securitize the minority rights discourse; and
increasing individual-level contacts between the EU and Ukraine to promote a broader European identity.
Charnysh, V. and R. Pique. "Razing the Church: The Enduring Effect of Nazi Repression in Poland."
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Repression against religious elites has not been widely studied. We present a novel argument on the divergent effects of such repression on religiosity and nationalism. We theorize that targeting the clergy may lower the supply of religion, changing behavioral practices such as church attendance. At the same time, victimized clergy may become martyrs for their faith and nation, strengthening religious nationalism. We provide support for this argument using original data on repression against the Catholic Church in Nazi-occupied Poland. Using a regression discontinuity design, we first establish that religious persecution was most severe in the incorporated Warthegau. Consistent with the supply channel, repressed localities provided less religious schooling (1950s) and had lower church attendance (1990s). However, in line with the martyrdom channel, these areas also erected more monuments to victimized priests and showed more support for nationalist parties when WWII was salient.
Charnysh, V. and M. Schaub. "Migration and Social Change: Evidence from Post-WWII Displacement in Germany."
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How do large-scale migration and resulting cultural diversity affect receiving societies? We argue that in contexts where individuals from different cultures regularly interact, exposure to cultural differences increases tolerance for deviant behavior, liberalizing social norms over time. We support this argument with evidence from Bavaria, which experienced a quasi-exogenous change in denominational diversity after WWII, following the arrival of 1.9 million German expellees from Central and Eastern Europe. Denominationally-blind allocation policy reduced the number of homogeneous settlements from 1,704 to nine as displaced Protestants were frequently assigned to predominantly Catholic communities and vice versa. Using original data on over 7,000 historic municipalities, we show that this sudden increase in denominational diversity reduced church attendance and membership, lowered support for socially conservative political parties, shored up support for progressive parties, and liberalized norms on gender and sexuality. These findings advance research on cultural persistence, intergroup contact, and consequences of migration.
Charnysh, V., L. Peisakhin, N. Stoop, and P. van der Windt. "The Determinants of Assistance to Refugees: Evidence from Poland."
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We explore the correlates of assistance to refugees from the Global South (Syria) and Global North (Ukraine) in Eastern Europe in a nationally-representative face-to-face survey of 2,500 Poles. We find that dispositional empathy, a stable personality trait, strongly predicts both current and future assistance, while situational empathy activated in a perspective-taking experiment has no effect. In a conjoint experiment, we further show that refugees in greater humanitarian need are more likely to receive help, and that hosts with higher dispositional empathy are more responsive to these refugee profiles. We show that Poles whose families were victimized during WWII have higher levels of dispositional empathy. We advance existing research by distinguishing between different forms of empathy, deploying multiple measures of refugee assistance, and demonstrating that preferences for refugees with specific traits are consistent across Global South and Global North refugees.
V. Charnysh and R. Lall. "Consequences of the Black Sea Slave Trade: Long-Run Development in Eastern Europe."
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We investigate the developmental consequences of slave-raiding in Eastern Europe, the largest source of slaves in the early modern world after West Africa. Drawing on a wide-ranging new dataset, we estimate that at least 5 million people were enslaved from 735 locations across the region between the 15th and 18th centuries. We hypothesize that, over time, slave raids encouraged an economically advantageous process of defensive state-building linked to raided societies' resistance to and lack of integration into the slave trade. Using difference-in-differences and instrumental variables strategies, we find that exposure to raids is positively associated with long-run urban growth and several related indicators of demographic and commercial development. Consistent with our posited mechanism, raided areas constructed more robust defenses and attained higher levels of administrative, military, and fiscal capacity. Our findings suggest that the structure of slave production conditions its developmental legacies, cautioning against drawing generalizations from the African context.
Bollen, P. and V. Charnysh. "Dispute Resolution in Heterogeneous Societies."
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How do individuals choose between alternative legal systems? We manipulate ethnicity of parties to a land dispute in an online experiment in Ghana and analyze Afrobarometer survey to understand the role of ethnicity in preferences for state courts over customary leaders. In Accra, an ethnically heterogeneous city, respondents were more likely to recommend customary dispute resolution for disputants who shared ethnicity with the local chief; they evaluated the chief as more biased and less able to provide an effective and amicable settlement in non-coethnic disputes, relative to state courts. In more homogeneous Kumasi, disputants’ ethnicity did not affect legal strategies. Using Afrobarometer, we find that respondents who live in more ethnically heterogeneous districts are less likely to identify traditional leaders as responsible for dispute resolution and land allocation and view them as less influential; this relationship is strongest in urban areas where both state and non-state justice is available.
V. Charnysh, N. Naumenko, and A. Markevich. "American Relief and the Soviet famine of 1921-22."
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This paper explores the efficiency of one of the first mass-scale international aid policies -- American relief to Soviet Russia suffering from the 1921-22 famine. We construct a large novel panel dataset and document several new facts. We show that the famine resulted from the combination of grain requisitions during the War Communism and the severe drought and the resulting harvest failure in 1921. We further show that despite Soviet interference and infrastructural difficulties, the American Relief Administration (ARA) managed to distribute the relief based on the severity of the famine, with provinces that collected smaller harvests receiving more food. As a result, birth cohorts from the time window around the famine were more likely to survive in the provinces where the ARA fed more people. To establish a causal effect of American aid on survival, we rely on the arguably exogenous variation in grain shipments to Soviet ports and the location of the first ARA's headquarters in the suffering region. Our analysis shows how effective international aid can be when it is not captured by local elites.
Charnysh, V. and D. Ziblatt. "Consequences of Competition under Autocracy for Democratic Elections: From Imperial to Weimar Germany."
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How do authoritarian election practices affect democratic political outcomes? We argue that political parties' uneven access to state resources in a pre-democratic setting has lasting effects on their organizational development and electoral prospects after a democratic transition. When party elites are able to win authoritarian elections through manipulation, they under-invest in formal party organization and fail to cultivate stable voter linkages. After a democratic transition, poorly institutionalized parties are less effective at containing internal disagreements and representing their electorates, which undermines their electoral performance and increases voter defections to anti-system parties. We test this argument using an original district-level dataset on electoral disputes in German elections (1871-1912). We show that pro-regime parties' greater reliance on electoral manipulation in non-democratic elections predicts bigger electoral losses by their successor parties after democratization and that the Nazi Party secured more votes in districts with a history of electoral manipulation during the Great Depression.
