Sunlight Disinfects? Free Media in Weak Democracies

57 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2013 Last revised: 18 Mar 2018

See all articles by Leopoldo Fergusson

Leopoldo Fergusson

Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics

Juan F. Vargas

Universidad del Rosario - Faculty of Economics

Mauricio Vela

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) - Research Department

Date Written: February 18, 2013

Abstract

Free media may not favor political accountability when other democratic institutions are weak, and may even bring undesirable unintended consequences. We propose a simple model in which candidates running for office may engage in coercion to obtain votes. A media scandal exposing these candidates entices them to increase their coercion effort to offset the negative shock on their popularity, potentially minimizing or even counteracting the effect of the scandal on their vote share. We provide empirical evidence from one recent episode in the political history of Colombia in which politicians seeking a seat in Congress colluded with illegal armed paramilitary groups to obtain votes, and this collusion was ultimately brought to light by a media scandal. We find that paramilitary-backed candidates exposed before elections get as many votes as those exposed after elections, but their electoral support is more strongly concentrated where coercion is cheaper: in areas with paramilitary presence and weak state capacity. Our results highlight the complementarity between different dimensions of democratic institutions.

Keywords: Media, Democracy, Elections, Colombia, Civil Conflict, Coercion

JEL Classification: D72, D74, L82, P16

Suggested Citation

Fergusson, Leopoldo and Vargas, Juan F. and Vela, Mauricio, Sunlight Disinfects? Free Media in Weak Democracies (February 18, 2013). Documento CEDE No. 2013-14, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2229506 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2229506

Leopoldo Fergusson (Contact Author)

Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics ( email )

Carrera 1a No. 18A-10
Santafe de Bogota, AA4976
Colombia

HOME PAGE: http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/uniandes?q=Leopoldo+Fergusson

Juan F. Vargas

Universidad del Rosario - Faculty of Economics ( email )

Casa Pedro Fermín
Calle 14 # 4-69
Bogota
Colombia

Mauricio Vela

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) - Research Department ( email )

1300 New York Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20577
United States

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