During the past few decades, Latin American governments’ recurrent attacks against journalists have contributed to the erosion of press freedom in the region and, relatedly, of the quality of democracy. Yet what pushes governments to harass journalists? We argue that governments are more likely to harass journalists when popular support for them drops. Due to the ability of journalists to influence public opinion, governments could perceive the harassment of journalists as a means to punish and silence those individuals who are seen as contributing to their decline in public support or as obstacles to regaining popularity. We test our argument on a sample of Latin American countries observed from 1990 to 2019. We find that declines in governments’ popular support lead to more harassment of journalists. Our research contributes to the debate on the determinants of press freedom and sheds further light on the current decline of democratic quality in Latin America.

Because the legitimacy of the welfare system ultimately depends on citizens’ support, it is vital to understand public welfare attitudes. By analysing primary data collected in Zhuhai City, this study examines Chinese people's attitudes toward contributory social security programmes. The study's bi-dimensional conception of welfare attitudes synthesises the dual roles that people play in social security and examines their respective attitudes. Self-interest and ideology models were both tested in the Chinese context. As ordinary citizens, people's expectation for governmental responsibility in social security appears to be high. As contributors to the system, their willingness to pay premiums is also on the high side. Based on multivariate analysis, this study provides contextual explanations for the attitudinal patterns observed in Zhuhai and interprets the results in reference to the international literature. The article concludes with policy implications for China's social security reforms.