| Is authoritarian nostalgia stigmatized? Previous research suggests that authoritarian experiences leave lasting marks of stigma, serving as a warning against the authoritarian ideology. However, the recent success of farright parties in democracies with histories of fascist rule and widespread concerns about democratic backsliding in Eastern Europe challenge this assumption. I address this puzzle by investigating the interaction between memory and politics, focusing on the (lack of) stigmatization of authoritarian nostalgia. In an original survey, I map Italy’s memory of the fascist past, measuring public opinion of the dictatorship and its memorialization, and then test whether memories favorable to the past dictatorship are stigmatized. Using three experimental strategies manipulating social pressure, I do not find evidence of preference falsification regarding authoritarian nostalgia. Italian public opinion acknowledges a predominant anti-fascist memory of the country’s past, while also recognizing that this narrative is contested by a significant revisionist minority. Moreover, the memorialization of the fascist past appears partisan and not fully inclusive. Further research is needed to understand how collective memory can form binding social norms, its causes, and its consequences. |