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Title: How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru

Author(s): John McMillan and Paolo Zoido

Publication Date: April 2004

Keyword(s): bribery, checks and balances, corruption, democracy, institutions, media and peru

Programme Area(s): Public Economics

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.

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Bibliographic Reference

McMillan, J and Zoido, P. 2004. 'How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=4361