Week 07
Propaganda: Strategies of Demobilization
Lecture Readings
These readings will be covered in the lecture.
Endogenous Popularity: How Perceptions of Support Affect the Popularity of Authoritarian Regimes
Acting “As If”: Symbolic Politics and Social Control in Syria
Propaganda as Signaling
The Pathology of Hard Propaganda
How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression
Further Reading
Gary King, Jennifer Pan and Margaret E. Roberts
“How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument”
American Political Science Review (2017)
Maxim Alyukov
“Harnessing Distrust: News, Credibility Heuristics, and War in an Authoritarian Regime”
Political Communication (2023)
Jane Esberg
“Censorship as Reward: Evidence from Pop Culture Censorship in Chile”
American Political Science Review (2020)
Jidong Chen and Yiqing Xu
“Why Do Authoritarian Regimes Allow Citizens to Voice Opinions Publicly?”
The Journal of Politics (2017)
Georgy Egorov, Sergei Guriev and Konstantin Sonin
“Why Resource-Poor Dictators Allow Freer Media: A Theory and Evidence from Panel Data”
American Political Science Review (2009)
Chris Edmond
“Information Manipulation, Coordination, and Regime Change”
The Review of Economic Studies (2013)
Haifeng Huang, Fangfei Wang and Li Shao
“How Propaganda Moderates the Influence of Opinion Leaders on Social Media in China”
International Journal of Communication (2018)
Andrew T. Little
“Propaganda and Credulity”
Games and Economic Behavior (2017)
Philipp M. Lutscher and Karsten Donnay
“A Difficult Test for Hard Propaganda: Evidence from a Choice Experiment in Venezuela”
Journal of Peace Research (2025)
Propaganda and Entertainment
Shouzhi Xia
“Amusing Ourselves to Loyalty? Entertainment, Propaganda, and Regime Resilience in China”
Political Research Quarterly (2022)
Paulina Bren
The Greengrocer and His TV: The Culture of Communism after the 1968 Prague Spring
Cornell University Press (2010)