Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP4361
Authors: John McMillan; Pablo Zoido
Abstract: Which of the democratic checks and balances ? opposition parties, the judiciary, a free press ? is the most critical? Peru has the full set of democratic institutions. In the 1990s, the secret-police chief Montesinos systematically undermined them all with bribes. We quantify the checks using the bribe prices. Montesinos paid television-channel owners about 100 times what he paid judges and politicians. One single television channel?s bribe was four times larger than the total of the opposition politicians? bribes. By revealed preference, the strongest check on the government?s power was the news media.
Keywords: bribery; checks and balances; corruption; democracy; institutions; media; Peru
JEL Codes: K10; L82; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Montesinos (N96) | judiciary (K40) |
| Montesinos (N96) | opposition parties (D72) |
| Montesinos (N96) | media (L82) |
| size of bribe (K42) | effectiveness of media as check on governmental power (H11) |
| absence of independent media (O17) | unchecked governmental power (H11) |
| Montesinos (N96) | bribes to media owners (H57) |
| media's reach and ability to disseminate information (L96) | shaping public perception (D72) |
| undermining judiciary (K40) | weakening media (Z13) |
| undermining media (E26) | weakening judiciary (K40) |