Executive Power and Media Freedom in Central and Eastern Europe

What is it about?

Political executives—usually presidents and prime ministers—influence how effectively citizens can monitor them, yet the link between executives and government transparency is not well developed. I highlight the relationship between media freedom—one dimension of transparency—and executive power, theorizing that politicians prefer to avoid monitoring and negative publicity, and that both presidents and prime ministers often can do something about it via their constitutional powers and influence accrued through partisan support. Using new panel data on Central and Eastern European prime ministers and presidents, I find that proactive legislative powers for both executive types and increased partisan support for prime ministers hurt media freedom.

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Photo by Md Mahdi on Unsplash

Photo by Md Mahdi on Unsplash

Why is it important?

My model explains most of the variation in Central and Eastern European media freedom, predicts high press freedom in Western Europe, and has important implications for the broader relationships between executive power, transparency, and accountability.