The Stasi files

In this project, I use a novel data set based on folders of almost 300 informants of the East German Ministry for State Security to answer questions about the operation of secret police in an authoritarian state. One of the resulting papers revisits the question of the effects that destabilizing factors have on the control of authoritarian regimes and how the regimes counteract it using covert repression. The other two papers address the issues of enrollment of informants and their responsiveness to incentives.

Published Work

1. Piotrowska, B.M. (2020) The Price of Collaboration: How Authoritarian States Retain Control Comparative Political Studies 53(13):2091-2117

2. Piotrowska, B.M. (2018) How Authoritarian States Retain Control: Lessons from the Stasi Files APSA-CP (Newsletter of the Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association) 28(1)

Working Papers

3. "Reaching the Converted: Understanding the Methods of Informant Enrolment" Under Review

4. "Paying for Information: Responsiveness of Informants to Monetary Incentives"