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Censorship as Reward: Evidence from Pop Culture Censorship in Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2020

JANE ESBERG Open the ORCID record for JANE ESBERG [Opens in a new window]
JANE ESBERG*
Affiliation:
Princeton University and International Crisis Group
*
Jane Esberg, Postdoctoral Fellow, Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, Princeton University; and Economics of Conflict Fellow, International Crisis Group, jesberg@crisisgroup.org.
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Abstract

Censorship has traditionally been understood as a way for dictators to silence opposition. By contrast, this article develops and tests the theory that certain forms of censorship—in particular, prohibitions on popular culture—serve not only to limit political information but also to reward dictators’ supporters. Using text analysis of all 8,000 films reviewed for distribution during Chile’s dictatorship, I demonstrate that rather than focusing only on sensitive political topics, censors banned movies containing content considered immoral. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative evidence, I show that these patterns cannot be explained by masked political content, distributor self-censorship, or censor preferences. Instead, they reflect the regime’s use of censorship as a reward for supporters, particularly conservative Catholic groups. My findings suggest that even repressive measures can be used in part to maintain support for authoritarian regimes.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 114 , Issue 3 , August 2020 , pp. 821 - 836
Copyright
© American Political Science Association 2020

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Footnotes

I am grateful to Consuelo Amat, Lisa Blaydes, Martin Dimitrov, Mathilde Emeriau, Natalia Garbiras-Diaz, Christian Fong, Francisco Garfias, Dimitar D. Gueorguiev, Justin Grimmer, Anna Grzymala-Busse, Haemin Jee, David Laitin, Beatriz Magaloni, Elvin Ong, Jennifer Pan, Rebecca Perlman, Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld, Rory Truex, Jeremy Weinstein, Lauren Young, Tamar Zeilberger, and participants at APSA 2019, UCLA COMPASS, the California Workshop in Empirical Political Science, the WPSA Mini-conference on Authoritarian Politics, and Stanford’s Conference on Human Rights & Repression for guidance and comments. I also thank three anonymous reviewers and the editors for their feedback and guidance. Susan Haddon and Pere Monserrat provided excellent research assistance. I am grateful to Chile’s Consejo de Calificación Cinematográfica and Ministry of Education for granting me access to their archives and for their hospitality during my visit. Support for this research was provided by Stanford’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship, Stanford’s VPGE, Stanford’s Europe Center, and Stanford’s Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. Replication files are available at the American Political Science Review Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QQ2FV9.

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