Populism and Press Freedom

What is the relationship between populist rule and the freedom of the press? Populists are personalistic leaders who seek to gain and retain power by establishing unmediated links with mass constituencies, who are otherwise relatively free of existing party and institutional ties. Populists rely heavily on the media to mobilize popular support and thus face strong incentives to control and dominate the press. Using a new dataset on populist rule in 86 countries from 1980-2014, this paper tests whether rule by a populist party is associated with a decline in press freedom relative to other types of party rule. It finds that populist rule is associated with a decline in most measures of media freedom relative to programmatic party rule. The effect is about a third the size of that for authoritarian rule.

Paul D. Kenny is research fellow of political and social change at the Australian National University. Paul obtained his PhD in political science at Yale University and has taught at ANU since 2013. He was previously assistant professor of political science at Trinity College Dublin. His current research covers several areas of comparative politics, including the causes and consequences of populism, ethnic politics, and the politics of immigration. His research can be found in the British Journal of Political Science and Government and Opposition among other journals. His first book, Populism and Patronage: Why Populists Win Elections in India, Asia, and Beyond, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

Date & time

Thu 18 May 2017, 12am

Location

L.J. Hume Centre

Speakers

Dr Paul Kenny

Contacts

Jessica Genauer

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