The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Evidence: How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru

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Participating organisations in the Global Alliance for Social and Behaviour Change - Building Informed and Engaged Societies were asked to identify, in their opinion, the 5 most compelling research and evaluation studies that demonstrate the direct impact of this field of work on a major development issue. This was one of the nominees. For the full compiled list, please click here. For the compilation of the key impact data across all research evidence identified, please click here.

Title of paper, article, book (chapter), publication?:

John McMillan, Pablo Zoido

Name(s) of author(s)?:

John McMillan, Pablo Zoido

Who published this paper, article, book (chapter) or other publication?:

Journal of Economic Perspectives Number 3 11 August 2004

What are the best extracts that highlight the evidence for the impact of a communication for development, social change, behaviour change, public engagement, or informed citizen strategy on a development issue and priority?:

Which of the democratic checks and balances—opposition parties, the judiciary, a free press—is the most forceful? Peru has the full set of democratic institutions. In the 1990s, the secret-police chief Montesinos systematically undermined them all with bribes. We quantify the checks using the bribe prices. 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. By revealed preference, the strongest check on the government’s power was the news media.

To which development issue does this evidence and impact data relate?:

Governance, Accountability, Democracy, Freedom

To which strategic approach(es) does the evidence and impact data relate?:

Independent Media

What research methodology (ies) was/were used to produce this evidence and impact data?:

Documentation of bribe prices to demonstrate revealed preferences

What is the URL to access this paper, article, book (chapter) or other publication?:

http://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Montesinos_in_Peru.pdf

Why was this research evidence found to be useful?:

One of the most effective ways of understanding what is effective at holding corrupt actors to account is to interrogate the behaviour of those actors and what mechanisms they understand to constitute a threat to their corruption. This is the best study that has been able to do that.