Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:17:50.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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, [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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.

References

Albertus, Michael. 2015. Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Jon Lee. 1998. “The Dictator.” The New Yorker. October 12. Available from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/19/the-dictator-2.Google Scholar
Aróstegui, Julio, and Viñas, Ángel. 2012. En el combate por la historia: La republica, la guerra civil, el franquismo. Barcelona, Spain: Pasado & Presente.Google Scholar
Ballesteros, Teodoro González. 1981. Aspectos jurídicos de la censura cinematográfica en España: Con especial referencia al periodo 1936-1977. Editorial de la Universidad Complutense.Google Scholar
Blaydes, Lisa. 2010. Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blofield, Merike Helena. 2001. The Politics of ‘Moral Sin’: A Study of Abortion and Divorce in Catholic Chile Since 1990. Santiago, Chile: FLACSO.Google Scholar
Boas, Taylor C. 2004. “Weaving the Authoritarian Web.” Current History 103: 438–43.Google Scholar
Boas, Taylor C. 2016. “Pastors for Pinochet: Authoritarian Stereotypes and Voting for Evangelicals in Chile.” Journal of Experimental Political Science 3 (2): 197–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brett, Sebastian. 1998. Limits of Tolerance: Freedom of Expression and the Public Debate in Chile. New York: Human Rights Watch.Google Scholar
de Mesquita, Bueno, Bruce, Alistair Smith, Siverson, Randolph M., and Morrow, James D. 2005. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Calvo, Ernesto, and Murillo, Victoria. 2004. “Who Delivers? Partisan Clients in the Argentine Electoral Market.” American Journal of Political Science 48 (4): 742–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, Brett L., and Carter, Erin Baggott. 2016. “Propaganda and Protest: Evidence from Post-Cold War Africa.” Working paper. Available from http://brettlogancarter.org/May%202016/PropagandaProtestV10.pdf.Google Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 1977. “Bio: Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.” June. Available from https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/home.Google Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 1978. “Chile: Pinochet’s Anniversary Speech and the Constitutional Controversy.” September 28. Available from https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/home.Google Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 1984. “National Intelligence Daily.” December. Available from https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/home.Google Scholar
Legislature, Chilean. 2001. “Historia de la Ley No. 19.742: Reforma constitucional que elimina la censura cinematográfica sustituyendola por un sistema de calificación y que consagra el derecho a la libre creación artística.” Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. Available from http://www.bcn.cl/historiadelaley/nc/historia-de-la-ley/6015/.Google Scholar
Chwe, Michael Suk-Young. 2013. Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Matthew D.. 1986. “Electoral Politics as a Redistributive Game.” The Journal of Politics 48 (2): 370–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, Christian. 2007. “State Repression and Political Order.” Annual Review of Political Science 10 (1): 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davison, W. Phillips. 1983. “The Third-Person Effect in Communication.” Public Opinion Quarterly 47 (1): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de los Angeles Crummett, Maria. 1977. “El Poder Feminino: The Mobilization of Women against Socialism in Chile.” Latin American Perspectives 4 (4): 103–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vega, Guillermo C. 1975. Film and Freedom: Movie Censorship in the Philippines. Manila, Philippines: Vega.Google Scholar
Dimitrov, Martin. 2015. “Internal Government Assessments of the Quality of Governance in China.” Studies in Comparative International Development 50 (1): 50–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dimitrov, Martin. 2014. “Tracking Public Opinion under Authoritarianism: The Case of the Soviet Union under Brezhnev.” Russian History 41 (3): 329–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egami, Naoki, Fong, Christian J., Grimmer, Justin, Roberts, Margaret E., and Stewart, Brandon M.. 2018. “How to Make Causal Inferences Using Texts.” Working paper. Available from https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.02163.pdf.Google Scholar
Fisher, Max. 2012. “Cropped Modesty: Iran’s High-tech Tricks for Censoring American Movies.” The Atlantic, August 8. Available from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/cropped-modesty-irans-high-tech-tricks-for-censoring-american-movies/260851/.Google Scholar
Fong, Christian. 2019. texteffect: Discovering Latent Treatments in Text Corpora and Estimating Their Causal Effects. R package version 0.3. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=texteffect. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Fong, Christian, and Grimmer, Justin. 2016. “Discovery of Treatments from Text Corpora.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Available from https://aclweb.org/anthology/papers/P/P16/P16-1151/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fong, Christian, and Grimmer, Justin. 2019. “Exploratory and Confirmatory Causal Inference for High-dimensional Text Interventions.” Working Paper. Available from https://www.dropbox.com/s/b3f3soiqz3vuwob/dexp3.pdf?dl=0.Google Scholar
Freemuse. 2018. The State of Artistic Freedom. København Ø, Denmark: Freemuse. Available from https://freemuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Freemuse-The-state-of-artistic-freedom-2018-online-version.pdf.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Mary E., and Hanson, Jonathan K.. 2014. “Power Tool or Dull Blade? Selectorate Theory for Autocracies.” Annual Review of Political Science 18: 367–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, Jennifer, and Lust-Okar, Ellen. 2009. “Elections under Authoritarianism.” Annual Review of Political Science 12: 403–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geddes, Barbara, and Zaller, John. 1989. “Sources of Popular Support for Authoritarian Regimes.” American Journal of Political Science 33 (2): 319–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, Anthony. 1998. Rendering unto Caesar: The Catholic Church and the State in Latin America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
González, Gustavo. 1996. “Chile: La última tentación de la censura.” Inter Press Service. Available from http://www.ipsnoticias.net/1996/11/chile-la-ultima-tentacion-de-la-censura/.Google Scholar
Greitens, Sheena Chestnut. 2013. “Authoritarianism Online: What Can We Learn from Internet Data in Nondemocracies?” PS: Political Science and Politics 46 (2): 262–270.Google Scholar
Gunther, Albert C., and Hwa, Ang Peng. 1996. “Public Perceptions of Television Influence and Opinions about Censorship in Singapore.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 8 (3): 248–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guriev, Sergei M., and Treisman, Daniel. 2015. “How Modern Dictators Survive: An Informational Theory of the New Authoritarianism.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working paper (21136). Available from https://www.nber.org/papers/w21136.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, Hopkins, Daniel, and Yamamoto, Teppei. 2014. “Causal Inference in Conjoint Analysis: Understanding Multi-dimensional Policy Choices via Stated Preference Experiments.” Political Analysis 22 (1): 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassid, Jonathan. 2012. “Safety Valve or Pressure Cooker? Blogs in Chinese Political Life.” Journal of Communication 62 (2): 212–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huneeus, Carlos. 2006. “Pinochet’s Regime: The Verdict of History.” openDemocracy, December 13. Available from https://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/pinochet_verdict_4178.jsp.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, Robert. 2006. Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.Google Scholar
Inter-American Courts of Human Rights. 2001. “Judgment of February 5, 2001.” Olmedo-Bustos et al. v. Chile. Available from http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_73_ing.pdf.Google Scholar
Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 1974. “Chilean Jewish Leaders Sought to Convince President Ugarte Not to Ban Fiddler on the Roof.” September 13. Available from https://www.jta.org/1974/09/13/archive/chilean-jewish-leaders-sought-to-convince-president-ugarte-not-to-ban-fiddler-on-the-roof.Google Scholar
Moreno, Jiles, Ximena, . 1992. De la miel a los implantes: historia de las políticas de regulación de la fecundidad en Chile. Santiago, Chile: Corporación de Salud y Políticas Sociales.Google Scholar
Johnson, Matthew D. 2012. “A Companion to Chinese Cinema.” In Propaganda and Censorship in Chinese Cinema, ed. by Zhang, Yingjin. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 153–178.Google Scholar
de Gobierno, Junta, Chile, . 1975. “Establece Normas Sobre Calificación Cinematográfica (D.L. 679).” LeyChile. April. Available from https://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=6280.Google Scholar
de Gobierno, Junta, Chile, . 1974. Republica de Chile, 1974: Primer año de la reconstrucción nacional. Santiago, Chile: Editorial Nacional Gabriela Mistral.Google Scholar
Kern, Holger Lutz, and Hainmueller, Jens. 2009. “Opium for the Masses: How Foreign Media Can Stabilize Authoritarian Regimes.” Political Analysis 17 (4): 377–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer, and Roberts, Margaret E.. 2015. “How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression.” American Political Science Review 107 (2): 326–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kornbluh, Peter. 2005. The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
La Iglesia del Silencio en Chile. 1976. Santiago, Chile: Sociedad Chilena de Defensa de la Tradición, Familia y Propiedad.Google Scholar
Redacción, La. 1997. “La censura cinematográfica Chilena, creada en la dictadura de Pinochet, prohíbe hoy ‘La última tentación de Cristo’, de Scorsese.” Proceso. 28 June. Available from http://www.proceso.com.mx/175877/la-censura-cinematografica-chilena-creada-en-la-dictadura-de-pinochet-prohibe-hoy-la-ultima-tentacion-de-cristo-de-scorsese.Google Scholar
LaFranchi, Howard. 1996. “In Conservative Chile, What You See Isn’t What You Get.” CS Monitor November 29. Available from https://www.csmonitor.com/1996/1129/112996.intl.intl.6.html.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, Peter. 2014. “China’s Strategic Censorship.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (2): 402–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magaloni, Beatriz. 2008. Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and its Demise in Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Magaloni, Beatriz, Cayeros, Alberto Diaz, and Estévez, Federico. 2017. Strategies of Vote Buying: Democracy, Clientelism, and Poverty Relief in Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Monckeberg, Maria Olivia. 2016. El Imperio del Opus Dei en Chile. Santiago, Chile: DEBATE.Google Scholar
Morais, Ana Bela. 2017. “Censorship in Spain and Portugal of Spanish Films (1968-1974): A Comparative Perspective.” Interlitteraria 22 (1): 93–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morley, Morris, and McGillion, Chris. 2015. Reagan and Pinochet: The Struggle over US Policy toward Chile. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrow, James D., de Mesquita, Bruce Bueno, Siverson, Randolph M., and Smith, Alastair. 2008. “Retesting Selectorate Theory: Separating the Effects of W from Other Elements of Democracy.” American Political Science Review 102 (3): 393–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olave, Daniel, and de la Parra, Marco Antonio. 2001. Pantalla Prohibida: Censura Cinematográfica en Chile. Santiago, Chile: Editorial Grijalbo S.A.Google Scholar
Pietiläinen, Jukka, and Strovsky, Dmitry. 2013. “Why Do Russians Support Censorship of the Media?” Russian Journal of Communication 3 (1–2): 53–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Policzer, Pablo. 2009. The Rise and Fall of Repression in Chile. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Power, Margaret. 2002. “Right-Wing Women: From Conservatives to Extremists around the World.” In Right-Wing Women, Sexuality, and Politics in Chile During the Pinochet Dictatorship, 1973-1990, eds. Bacchetta, Paola and Power, Margaret. New York: Routledge, 273–286.Google Scholar
Rojas, Hernando, Shah, Dhavan V., and Faber, Ronald J.. 1996. “For the Good of Others: Censorship and the Third-Person Effect.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 8 (2): 163–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rozenas, Arturas, and Stukal, Denis. 2017. “How Autocrats Manipulate Economic News: Evidence from Russia’s State-Controlled Television.” Working paper. Available from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3023254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruderer, Stephan. 2012. “Cruzada contra el comunismo. Tradición, Familia y Propiedad (TFP) en Chile y Argentina.” Sociedad y religión 22 (38): 77–106.Google Scholar
Santa-Cruz, Arturo. 2010. International Election Monitoring, Sovereignty, and the Western Hemisphere: The Emergence of an International Norm. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sapiets, Janis. 1982. “Extolling the Party: Soviet Broadcasting: Censorship or Responsibility?” Index on Censorship 11 (5): 14–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuffeneger, Humberto Lagos. 1988. Crisis de la Esperanza. Santiago, Chile: Presor.Google Scholar
Spooner, Mary Helen. 1999. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, William. 1996. The Protection Racket State: Elite Politics, Military Extortion, and Civil War in El Salvador. Philadelpha, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Svolik, Milan. 2012. The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomaselli, Keyan G. 2008. “Ideology and Censorship in South African Film.” Communicatio 34 (1): 1–15.Google Scholar
Tradición, Familia y Propiedad (TFP). 1963. “Revolución y contra-revolución.” Fiducia (October): 6–9.Google Scholar
Tradición, Familia y Propiedad (TFP). 1981a. “Boicot amenaza TV inmoral en Estados Unidos.” Boletín informativo (May): 6.Google Scholar
Tradición, Familia y Propiedad (TFP). 1981b. “Combate a la inmoralidad y a las drogas.” Boletín informativo (May): 12–13.Google Scholar
Treisman, Daniel. 2018. The New Autocracy: Information, Politics, and Policy in Putin’s Russia. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Truex, Rory. 2017. “Consultative Authoritarianism and Its Limits.” Comparative Political Studies 50 (3): 329–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ugarte, Augusto Pinochet. 1974. Declaración de principios del gobierno de Chile. Santiago, Chile: Editora Nacional Gabriela Mistral.Google Scholar
Variety. 1971. “Review: Bluebeard.” December 31. Variety.com. Available from https://variety.com/1971/film/reviews/bluebeard-1200422832/.Google Scholar
Wang, Dakuo, and Mark, Gloria. 2015. “Internet Censorship in China: Examining User Awareness and Attitudes.” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 22 (6): 31:1–31:22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wedeen, Lisa. 1999. Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wilhelm, R. Dwight. 1991. “Censorship in Argentina.” International Social Science Review 66 (1): 21–28.Google Scholar
Wintrobe, Ronald. 2000. The Political Economy of Dictatorship. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zatlin, Phyllis. 2005. Theatrical Translation and Film Adaptation: A Practitioner’s View. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Esberg Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QQ2FV9
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Esberg supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Esberg supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 382.7 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.