Executive Power and Media Freedom in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Political executives often influence how effectively citizens can monitor them, yet the link between executives and government transparency is not well developed in the literature. I begin filling that void by illuminating the relationship between media freedom—one dimension of transparency—and executive power. I theorize that politicians prefer to avoid monitoring and negative publicity, and that both presidents and prime ministers often can do something about it via their constitutional powers and influence accrued through partisan support. Using new panel data on Central and Eastern European prime ministers and presidents, I find that proactive legislative powers for both executive types and increased partisan support for prime ministers negatively affect media freedom. My model explains most of the variation in Central and Eastern European media freedom, predicts high press freedom in Western Europe, and has important implications for the broader relationships between executive power, transparency, and accountability.