Cultural Censorship and Trust in Africa

• In Event: Censorship

Abstract

What are the consequences of cultural censorship on trust? Previous literature on interpersonal and political trust has paid insufficient attention to the importance of artistic spaces for shaping political attitudes. These spaces allow individuals to form trust relationships with each other and communicate normative thought. However, in both democracies and autocracies, we observed that these spaces are censored by the regime. While the rationale for censorship differs across regime types, some of the impacts look strikingly similar. Using survey data from the Afrobarometer and measures of censorship from V-Dem, this paper finds that interpersonal trust is diminished when autocracies engage in cultural censorship, offering additional insights into the ways that autocracies might use censorship to reduce the potential for collective action. Perhaps more strikingly, this paper finds that when all regimes censor their citizens’ cultural expression, trust in the ruling party increases and trust in the opposition party decreases for both supporters and opponents of the regime, suggesting that even democratic regimes might be motivated to engage in censorship for political gain.

Author

• Kelly Grenier