Page 42 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

30 Communication, Commerce and Power

to forge new intra-state structures as an essential step in reforming
inter-state relations, compels a reassessment and elaboration of the
forces and processes shaping state structural capacities. Relatively
sophisticated models of state policy exist, of course, and several of
these have emphasized how the institutional and organizational
capacities of a particular policy environment are related to perspect-
ives, decisions and their implementation. Theda Skocpol, for example,
has listed a number of significant variables that can be applied when
examining the capabilities of particular state agents to formulate and
implement relatively autonomous policies. Particularly in periods of
social-economic crisis, 'distinctive state strategies', according to Skoc-
pol, may be developed most readily by 'organizationally coherent
collectivities of state officials, especially collectivities of career officials
relatively insulated from ties to currently dominant socioeconomic
interests . .Jo Generally, these conditions most often are held by offi-
cials in charge of 'domestic order-keeping functions' and those
involved in 'the international orientations of states.' 31 In the United
States, however, even among agents responsible for these functions,
instances of apparent policy-making autonomy essentially do not
exist.
Material and historical conditions, such as the limited availability
of frequencies in the radio spectrum and the competing demands of
US private sector and defense-based agents; the export and overseas
aspirations of domestic corporations involved in the production and
distribution of information-based commodities; and the relationship
between military and intelligence-related research money and the
export interests of domestic companies have led to American state
officials typically being located in a broad range of government agen-
cies with overlapping foreign and domestic policy responsibilities.
Since the 1980s, the complexity of this domestic policy-foreign policy
relationship has deepened as a result of the emerging significance of
US-based corporations directly involved in international information
and communication activities, rather than simply exporting hardware
and software to foreign markets. At various times, amidst changing
historical circumstances, DBS policy developments have been the
expression of these structural conditions and, as such, this study of
DBS developments serves to elaborate these in relation to this book's
broader concern with both hegemony and cultural imperialism.
Again, the focus of this inquiry must be on the role of the state in
mediating not only the various agents of history but also its direct and
indirect role in shaping cultural environments.