Paper Explanation
Yes. This paper is much easier once you realize that the corruption story is the evidence, not the main intellectual contribution. The paper is trying to use an unusually well-documented corruption network to answer an economic question: Which democratic institution is hardest and most costly for an authoritarian government to neutralize—and why? McMillan and Zoido’s answer is mass media, especially television. Montesinos paid dramatically more to control television than politicians or judges, and the authors interpret those prices as evidence about the relative strength of different democratic checks. How to Subvert Democracy Your Lecture 2 slides confirm that this is exactly where the professor puts the emphasis: comparative bribery costs, “capture all” for television, bargaining power, the interaction with the Besley–Prat model, and common knowledge. So those will get the most attention below. Forget Peru for a minute. Suppose I am running a government and want to behave however I