Political Cycle of Foreign Movie Importation in Autocracy

• In Event: The Role of Ideas in State Power

Abstract

Autocratic leaders often rein tightly on information flow to maintain their power. While we know a lot about how autocracies repress domestic media, we know much less about how autocratic governments restrict unwanted exotic ideas. How do authoritarian leaders deal with the transmission of foreign ideas? This paper fills this gap by focusing on autocracies' import of American movies.

The import of foreign movies creates the diffusion of ideas advocated by movie producers that often reside in advanced industrial democracies. Unwanted ideas could be lethal at sensitive times for unstable regimes. While it is hard for autocracies to isolate themselves from the global transmission of movies, autocratic leaders could temporally barricade it at sensitive times.

I argue that there is a political cycle in importing foreign movies. Autocratic leaders interfere with the import of foreign films based on their political conditions. They would restrict foreign movie importation when they are politically unstable, such as before the election or important political events. The transition of political power in those countries often easily induces an unstable social and political atmosphere. During this period, movies with unwanted exotic ideas could easily influence citizens' political preferences and stimulate undesired social chaos. On the other hand, autocratic incumbents might let down their guard regarding foreign movie transmission when their power is consolidated, such as when they just won the election.

I further argue that this pattern is most evident in transmitting political-sensitive movies. Political-sensitive movies contain ideological-sensitive content that could directly affect citizens' political preferences. To prevent it jeopardizes the regime, autocratic incumbents would make a great effort to block it. In contrast, non-political movies might be less susceptible to the domestic politics of autocracies.

To test the arguments, I hand-collected an original dataset on the importation of American movies from 1919 to 2020. The United States is the top movie exporter in the motion picture industry. The dataset covered 130 countries that import American movies. It contained detailed information on the movie's release date in different countries. I will exploit the exogenous election time setting to investigate the pattern of foreign movie importation. My research findings will shed light on how autocracies react to the transmission of foreign ideas in the time of globalization. It also highlights the idea diffusion aspect of globalization that is largely ignored in political science.

Author

• Lu Sun, Tecnologico de Monterrey