Opium for the Masses: How Foreign Media Can Stabilize Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract

In this case study of the impact of West German television on public support for the East German communist regime, we evaluate the conventional wisdom in the democratization literature that foreign mass media undermine authoritarian rule. We exploit formerly classified survey data and a natural experiment to identify the effect of foreign media exposure using instrumental variable estimators. Contrary to conventional wisdom, East Germans exposed to West German television were more satisfied with life in East Germany and more supportive of the East German regime. To explain this surprising finding, we show that East Germans used West German television primarily as a source of entertainment. Behavioral data on regional patterns in exit visa applications and archival evidence on the reaction of the East German regime to the availability of West German television corroborate this result.

Exposure to television and individual beliefs: Evidence from a natural experiment

“…Basically, my empirical strategy is to compare the beliefs of GDR citizens who had access to Western television already before reunification with those who had not. A similar approach has recently been applied by Bursztyn and Cantoni (2012) and Kern and Hainmueller (2009). 7 In a first step, I use survey data collected by the central institute for youth research ("Zentralinstitut für Jugendforschung") between November 1988 and February 1989 in eight of the fifteen GDR districts.…”

Exposure to Television and Individual Beliefs: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

“…Basically, my empirical strategy is to compare the beliefs of GDR citizens who had access to Western television already before reunification with those who had not. A similar approach has recently been applied by Bursztyn and Cantoni (2012) and Kern and Hainmueller (2009).…”

Planting the Seeds of Change Inside? Functional Cooperation with Authoritarian Regimes and Socialization into Democratic Governance.

“…Studies on the diffusion of democratic norms point to the distinguished role of exchange programs and foreign media in transferring democratic norms to non-democratic states. Whereas exchange programs allow citizens of non-democratic states to experience democratic decision making firsthand in a democratic country (Atkinson 2010;Pérez-Armendáriz and Crow 2010;Nye 2004), foreign media broadcasts delineate democratic practices beyond borders (Kern and Hainmueller 2009;Way and Levitsky 2007;Wejnert 2005;Whitehead 1996). Consequently, state officials employed in a non-democratic polity have had experiences with democratic governance before they enter transgovernmental networks.…”

“…Annex Ib displays descriptive statistics and intercorrelation of independent variables. 12 A recent study on public support for the East German communist regime revealed that if foreign media is used primarily as a source of entertainment it may even increase support for the regime (Kern and Hainmueller 2009). 13 A non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test comparing the mean ranks for the three dimensions does not display any significant differences in attitude toward democratic governance between officials that spent time in Europe or in North America (df = 2; χ 2 = .310, p = .856 for participation; χ 2 = 1.913, p = .384 for accountability; χ 2 = .208, p = .901 for transparency).…”