This research addresses important and unresolved questions of democratization, by using a new methodological approach of cohort analysis to examine the lasting legacy of authoritarian dictatorships. We are conducting a comprehensive analysis of post-authoritarian countries from different parts of the world during the entire 20th century that experienced different types and durations of suppression. We expect that authoritarian regimes have a lasting impact on their citizens that goes beyond their existence based on three mechanism that are tested in this paper: public good provision, physical repression, and indoctrination through the media and especially the school system. To test a newly developed theory of authoritarian socialization, existing survey data from numerous post-authoritarian countries is harmonized and combined with the data of Varieties of Democracy and others to measure distinct features of political regimes. The data is analyzed using hierarchical age, period, cohort analysis to estimate the generational differences in democratic attitudes and behavior. The results show that there are distinct cohort differences in democratic support and authoritarian nostalgia that are due to the past experience of growing-up under non-democratic system. This research has important implication for understanding democratization from a micro perspective, as the legacy of authoritarian regime can undermine the development of a democratic political culture.
