The Consequences of Punishing Political Ideologies in Democracies – Evidence from Employment Bans in West Germany

States may use ideological exclusion to prevent radical movements and new party competitors from emerging. We examine whether such policies can instead backfire by politicizing opposition and creating openings for new challengers. Empirically, we study the Anti-Radical Decree in West Germany, which excluded individuals associated with radical organizations, mainly on the left, from public employment. We combine an original dataset of banned individuals with survey data and official electoral returns. At the individual level, we find that opposition to the bans is associated with stronger support for the emerging Green party. At the aggregate level, counties that experienced bans were more likely to protest the decree and subsequently recorded higher Green vote shares. We interpret these patterns as consistent with a mechanism in which employment bans increased local politicization and created opportunities for a new challenger. More broadly, the findings suggest that ideological exclusion can sometimes backfire politically.