Popular Support for Autocratic Regimes in Historical Perspective

May 26–27, 2026

Room Auditorium 3 - Jean-Jacques Laffont

Scope and objectives

This interdisciplinary conference brings together scholars in political science, economics, and history to address a foundational question: what explains popular support for autocratic regimes ? Its central objective is to move beyond treating such support as either sincere conviction or mere compliance under fear. Instead, presenters will examine how ordinary people navigate authoritarian rule, how regimes convert participation into legitimacy, and how researchers can reconstruct attitudes and behavior in authoritarian contexts from fragmentary archival traces. By linking micro-level evidence to broader political dynamics, the conference aims to refine how we conceptualize and measure “popular support,” and to clarify how and why it can persist (or re-emerge) long after regime change.

The conference is organized under the umbrella of the ANR-DFG project “Who Became a Nazi ? A Structured Database of the Denazification Questionnaires from French and American Occupation Zones in Germany, 1945–49” (DeNazDB).

Organizing committee

Victor Gay (TSE)

Jan Stuckatz (CBS)

Mikkel Dack (Rowan)

Selina Hofstetter (UZH)

Speakers

Fabio Angiolillo (UG)

Isabelle DeSisto (PU)

Pau Grau-Vilalta (EUI)

Jan Hammelehle (UE)

Cristina Mac Gregor (NYU)

Sascha Riaz (EUI)

Lucy Right (YU)

Magalí Serra Duran (EUI)

Ludwig Schulze (EUI)

Pau Vall-Prat (UE)

Steven M. Van Hauwaert (CUL)

Registration

Participation by invitation only.
Registrations will be open soon.
Registration for the workshop is free of charge.
Travel and accommodation expenses are the responsibility of the participants.