Lost in transition? The persistence of dictatorship mayors

Abstract

Dictatorships can affect the functioning of new democracies but the mechanisms are poorly understood. We study the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile using new data and provide two findings. First, mayors appointed by Pinochet obtained a nine percentage point vote premium in the first local election in democracy. This premium is explained by an incumbency advantage and by an increase in local spending during the transition. Second, dictatorship mayors increased the vote share of right-wing political parties in democracy. We conclude that the dictatorship won "hearts and minds" before the transition and successfully maintained part of their political power.

The Impact of Media Censorship: 1984 or Brave New World?

“…Media censorship is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. 1 Countries such as China spend a tremendous amount of resources to block foreign websites so that uncensored, regime-threatening information is out of citizens' reach. Scholars have long suggested that censorship is key to the popular support and stability of these regimes (Ford 1935).…”

“…A period of exposure to foreign news outlets increases students' reported trust of these outlets, and makes them willing to pay a higher price for the access. 1 Freedom House's Freedom of the Press Report shows that 86 percent of the world's population does not enjoy media free from censorship. In particular, states with "unfree" media are concentrated among regimes that are undemocratic and grant limited political rights for their citizens.…”

The Origins of Elite Persistence: Evidence from Political Purges in Post-World War II France

“…First, we contribute to the literature on elite persistence after democratic transitions (O'Donnell and Schmitter, 2013). We document a new mechanism -connections -explaining why elites persist and survive democratic transitions that complements existing explanations (e.g., Higley and Burton, 1989;Acemoglu and Robinson, 2006;Martinez-Bravo, 2014;Martinez-Bravo et al, 2017;González et al, 2021). 2 Second, we shed light on an understudied type of political purges: purges during democratic transitions.…”

“…In Indonesia, many of the mayors who had already served under the Soeharto regime were elected again after the transition to democracy and even stayed in office longer than other mayors (Martinez-Bravo et al, 2017). In post-Pinochet Chile, González et al (2021) also observe that mayors appointed by Pinochet held an electoral advantage in municipal elections after the 1990 democratic transition. Historically, the sequence of franchise extensions in the United Kingdom between 1832 and 1885 did little to break the British aristocracy's monopoly on power (Berlinski et al, 2014).…”

The Intergenerational Transmission of College: Evidence from the 1973 Coup in Chile

“…Finally, by estimating the intergenerational effects of policies implemented by a dictatorship, we also contribute to a rapidly growing literature documenting the legacies of authoritarian regimes and the consequences for the functioning of young democracies. Previous research has documented how authoritarian policies and institutions, different from educational reforms, have persistent effects and affect the distribution of political and economic power (Martínez Bravo et al, 2018;González et al, 2020González et al, , 2021. The link between dictatorship and educational policies also makes our paper related to research studying political regimes and redistribution (Acemoglu et al, 2015).…”