Do pandemics have lasting consequences for political behavior? The authors address this question by examining the consequences of the deadliest pandemic of the last millennium: the Black Death (1347–1351). They claim that pandemics can influence politics in the long run if the loss of life is high enough to increase the price of labor relative to other factors of production. When this occurs, labor-repressive regimes, such as serfdom, become untenable, which ultimately leads to the development of proto-democratic institutions and associated political cultures that shape modalities of political engagement for generations. The authors test their theory by tracing the consequences of the Black Death in German-speaking Central Europe. They find that areas hit hardest by that pandemic were more likely to adopt inclusive political institutions and equitable land ownership patterns, to exhibit electoral behavior indicating independence from landed elite influence during the transition to mass politics, and to have significantly lower vote shares for Hitler’s National Socialist Party in the Weimar Republic’s fateful 1930 and July 1932 elections.

中文翻译：

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大流行与政治发展

流行病对政治行为有持久的影响吗？作者通过研究上个千年最致命的流行病的后果来解决这个问题：黑死病（1347-1351）。他们声称，如果生命损失高到足以提高劳动力相对于其他生产要素的价格，那么从长远来看，流行病会影响政治。当这种情况发生时，诸如农奴制之类的劳工压制政权将变得站不住脚，最终导致原始民主制度和相关政治文化的发展，这些文化塑造了几代人的政治参与方式。作者通过追踪黑死病在讲德语的中欧的后果来检验他们的理论。