Connections during Democratic Transitions: Insights from the Political Purge in Post-WWII France

We examine how connections shaped transitional justice during France’s post-WWII democratic transition. Parliamentarians who had supported the Vichy regime faced a two-stage purge process involving two courts. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that law graduates—an influential group with ties to one of the courts—had a 10 to 14 percentage point higher acquittal rate. We analyze 17,589 documents in individual defendants’ files to explain this difference. According to this analysis, indirect connections—connections through third parties—enabled transmission of information to the judges, highlighting how connected elite groups can navigate transitions despite institutional safeguards. (JEL D72, D83, K41, N44)