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The German Elections in the 1870s: Why Germany Turned from Liberalism to Protectionism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2010

Sibylle H. Lehmann*
Affiliation:
Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, MPI Gemeinschaftsgüter, Kurt-Schuhmacher-Str. 10, Bonn 53113, Germany. E-mail: lehmann@coll.mpg.de.
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Abstract

In 1878 the liberal parties lost enough votes to lose the majority in the parliament which they had defended in the general election just one year before. In this article, the questions of where the voters came from and why the voting changed so crucially within one year are reexamined. The analysis uses a new set of data and makes use of King's algorithm, a tool provided by modern political science. The main finding of this article is that the change towards protectionism was not caused by new, but by floating voters from the agricultural sector.

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ARTICLES
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2010
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Figure 1RESULTS OF THE GENERAL ELECTIONS

Notes: The map shows the results of the general election for all constituencies of the German Kaiserreich in 1877 and 1878. The darker shaded areas show the protectionist majority and the lighter areas the ones with a free trade majority. It also shows the constituencies that changed from protectionist majority to a free trade majority and vice versa.
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Table 1GERMAN GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS, 1877 AND 1878

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Figure 2FARM SIZES IN HECTARES AND THE COMPOSITION OF OUTPUT

Source: Webb, “Agricultural Protection,” p. 324.
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Figure 3GERMAN TRADE BALANCES BY SECTOR IN 1000 “REICHSMARK,” 1872 AND 1877

Sources: Calculated from Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich, vol. 7, pp. 81–90; and Statistik des Deutschen Reiches, vol. 4, pp. 189–224.
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Table 2THE ECOLOGICAL INFERENCE PROBLEM FOR CONSTITUENCY I AND OCCUPATION J

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Figure 4OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES, GERMANY 1882

Note: Data on the employment of women were removed for those industries which constituted more than 1 percent of the workforce.Source: Calculated from the Occupational Census 1882; and Statistik des Deutschen Reiches, vol. 2, pp. 214–429.
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Table 3RESULTS FOR GERMANY, TURNOUT (BETAS) AMONG OCCUPATIONS

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Table 4RESULTS FOR EAST ELBIAN PRUSSIA, TURNOUT (betas) AMONG OCCUPATIONS

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Table 5RESULTS FOR THE CONSTITUENCIES IN WHICH THE LIBERALS LOST THE VOTE, TURNOUT (BETAS) AMONG OCCUPATIONS

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Table 6RESULTS FOR GERMANY, SHARE OF VOTES FOR FREE TRADE BY SECTOR (lambda)

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Table 7RESULTS FOR EAST ELBIA, SHARE OF VOTES FOR FREE TRADE BY SECTOR (lambda)

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Table 8RESULTS FOR THE CONSTITUENCIES IN WHICH THE LIBERALS LOST THE MAJORITY, SHARE OF VOTES FOR FREE TRADE BY SECTOR (lambda)

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Table 9OVERVIEW OF VARIABLE

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Table 10RESULTS SECOND-STAGE ESTIMATION