The Legacy of Empires on Political Outcomes in Romania

Abstract: The paper investigates discontinuity in political outcomes at the former Habsburg-Ottoman border in contemporary Romania. Historically Romania consisted of three provinces which were divided between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. The country united in the beginning of the 20th century and was turned into a national unitary state with a highly centralized economy. We posit that the striking institutional differences between two parts of the country in the 18th and 19th centuries could persist and influence political attitudes of people nowadays despite the fact that there was convergence in economic development across its regions and it has homogeneous institutions today. We test this hypothesis by merging data on historical borders between Habsburg and Ottoman Empires with data on voting in elections in Romania at the municipality level in the 1990s and 2000s. We find that on average within Romania the former Habsburg affiliation is associated with an increase in the percentage of votes for the major “right” parties by 3.5% and a decrease in the percentage of votes for the major “left” party by 4.5%. This is a remarkable effect taking into account that we identify these differences in political attitudes around the former border in a country which united a century ago and where during the Communist period the authorities tried to eliminate any regional differences. We do not find evidence that these differences might be explained by past ethnic diversity or geographical isolation.