Collective memories, propaganda and authoritarian political support

Can experience with democracy affect political support for a dictator? We develop a political economy model with endogenous reference points, where a dictator strategically reactivates traumatic collective memories about a past experience with democracy, to convince the population that a democratic alternative is inferior to the autocratic status quo. We find that a more traumatic experience with democracy in the past renders propaganda more efficient and increases the level of authoritarian political support per unit of memory recollection. We support these findings with panel data evidence from 103 countries.