Consequences of Democratic Backsliding in Popular Culture: Evidence from Blacklist in South Korea
Abstract
A burgeoning literature firmly establishes that democratic backsliding leaves negative imprints in various domains. However, this empirical regularity has not been extended to the realm of culture despite ample anecdotes pointing to the detrimental effect of democratic decays on the very backbone of cultural dynamism, the freedom of expression. To fill this lacuna, the paper documents the case of deliberate infringement on freedom of expression in South Korea during its recent backsliding period (2008-2017). Using a difference-in-difference model on an original individual-level panel dataset, I report that the government’s Blacklist project significantly damaged the careers of Korean movie workers, particularly those invisible from the public. The paper suggests that the consequence of a backsliding government’s attempt to control public discourse can be surprisingly comprehensive because it instills voluntary censorship in the industry.
