World War II Memorials and the Electoral Geography of Croatia: A Spatial Analysis

This contribution examines the relationship between historical monuments and local political identities, by investigating the connection between World War II monuments and the electoral geography of Croatia. Spatial dependence models are used to inspect the link between the presence and condition of World War II monuments and vote shares for different political options. The dataset places more than 1,000 historical monuments into roughly 500 geographical units for a variety of elections and referenda in the last decade. The empirical results point to a strong association between the presence of preserved monuments and electoral results.