🥳 New year, new publication 📑"Contested memories: the political effects of de-commemoration proposals" @jeppjournal.bsky.social With Francesco Colombo, we study a street renaming proposal in Berlin and find -contrary to conventional wisdom- no political backlash, but a positive feedback effect.

💡We argue that memory policies, in particular the de-commemoration of majority group figures, affect public opinion and voting behavior, even before their adoption. We provide causal evidence from a survey experiment and a difference-in-differences analysis of localized election data.

🛣️ At the center of our study is a 2021-report that identified 290 antisemitic streets all across Berlin and proposed the renaming of most. Backed by the city government, the report stirred a controversial debate in Berlin and beyond.

🔬 Our survey experiment shows that information about the report induces feelings of guilt among left-wing respondents, greater support for the renaming of antisemitic streets as well as other memory policies. And importantly, no evidence of backlash among center or right-wing voters!

🗳️ Using fine-grained election data and a difference-in-differences analysis, we show that the report also changed electoral fortunes. In districts with antisemitic streets, where exposure is arguably stronger, left-wing parties perform better than their right-wing counterparts following the report.

⚡Overall, our study shows that memory policy -even if it challenges majority groups- must not always produce a backlash and can strengthen progressive forces. It also calls for more attention to context and policy cycles, underlining the importance of national histories and temporal dynamics.