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Propaganda and Combat Motivation: Radio Broadcasts and German Soldiers’ Performance in World War II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2019

Benjamin Barber IV Open the ORCID record for Benjamin Barber IV [Opens in a new window]  and
Charles Miller
Benjamin Barber IV
Affiliation:
Department of Strategy at IE Business School in Madrid, Spainbenjamin.barber@ie.edu
Charles Miller
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Relations of the Australian National Universitymiller@anu.edu.au
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Abstract

What explains combat motivation in warfare? Scholars argue that monitoring, material rewards, and punishment alone are insufficient explanations. Further, competing ideological accounts of motivation are also problematic because ideas are difficult to operationalize and measure. To solve this puzzle, the authors combine extensive information from World War II about German soldiers’ combat performance with data about conditionally exogenous potential exposure to Nazi radio propaganda. They find evidence that soldiers with higher potential exposure to propaganda were more likely to be decorated for valor even after controlling for individual socioeconomic factors, home district characteristics like urbanization, and proxies for combat exposure.

Keywords

authoritarianismcollective actionideologymilitary effectiveness

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Research Article
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World Politics , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 457 - 502
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Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2019 

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