How to subvert democracy: a user’s guide provided by former Peruvian secrete police chief Montesinos

Which of the democratic checks and balances—opposition parties, the judiciary, a free press—is the most forceful? Professors John McMillan and Pablo Zoido find the answer from an unusual place: the secret dossier of Vladimiro Montesinos.

In the 1990s, the Peruvian secret-police chief Montesinos systematically undermined all of these democratic checks and balances with  bribes. For record-keeping and to ensure future cooperation of the bribe-takers, he video-taped and kept detailed records of almost all of his dealings with more than 1,600 bribe-takers.

After the fall of President Fujimori and the arrest of Montesinos himself, these video-tapes and documents come under public scrutiny 

Professors McMillan and Zoido obtained some copies from journalist friends in Perue, and creatively quantify the values of these democratic checks and balances using the bribe prices.

They find that, Montesinos paid a television-channel owner about 100 times what he paid a judge or a politician. One single television channel’s bribe was five times larger than
the total of the opposition politicians’ bribes.  The cost of bribing the politicians to get a majority in Congress added up to less than US$300,000 per month. The total cost of bribing judges was US$250,000 per month. The total cost of bribing the television channels was more than US $ 3 million per month.

By revealed preference, the strongest check on the government’s power was the news media.

Montesinos is smart but everyone makes mistakes at some point. He bribed all television channels but one: Channel N. He thought Channel N was an expensive channel with limited viewership and was not worth bribing.

Just several months after Fujimori won 2000 election, one of Montesinos’s videotapes (which will come to be called the vladivideos) was broadcast on Channel N.

The government fell. Fujimori fled to Japan. Montesinos was arrested in Venezuela and sent back to Peru for trials.

Reference:
How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru (PDF file)

A video showing Montesinos counting out US$1.5 million for Jose Francisco Crousillat, the VP of America Television, Channel 4

Bribe receipts. Left: a supreme court justice acknowledges being paid US$10,000. Right: a member of the National Electoral Board acknowledges being paid US$15,000

Comments

[fdhqjx]

Hey ppl look here is new guy who is listing kewl blogs
http://nja-nja.blogspot.com/2008/02/111.html

[fdhqjx]

Hey ppl look here is new guy who is listing kewl blogs
http://nja-nja.blogspot.com/2008/02/111.html

[othbdw]

icq 418-589-609 * 418589609 Урод и кидала
кидает на деньги в WOW проверено name: sidd3
owner of this icq and nickname is cheater and motherfucker
P.S Чтоб это был твой самый большой заработок за всю жизнь

[othbdw]

icq 418-589-609 * 418589609 Урод и кидала
кидает на деньги в WOW проверено name: sidd3
owner of this icq and nickname is cheater and motherfucker
P.S Чтоб это был твой самый большой заработок за всю жизнь

[olczij]

i hope. abcba87e8b thanks