Soldiers' Funerals Increase Nationalism: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Turkey

Abstract

Soldiers’ funerals are a powerful symbol of sacrifice. We investigate how these funerals influence public opinion and political behavior. On the one hand, casualties could undermine support for the conflict and government; on the other hand, exposure to violence could increase nationalism and antipathy toward out-groups galvanizing support for the campaign. This empirical question is difficult to answer: often more hawkish constituencies send more soldiers to the frontlines, generating selection bias. We provide new causal evidence from Turkey, where military service is compulsory for men, and soldiers are randomly assigned to peaceful posts or front lines of conflict, providing as-if random variation in which districts lose soldiers and host state-organized funerals. We show that soldiers’ funerals lead to more hawkish attitudes and public displays of nationalism observed as street protests and attacks against the pro-Kurdish party. Our results highlight how state funerals intensify nationalist sentiments and mobilization during civil conflicts.