Page 148 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS
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The Three Models
no consensus on the basic structure of the social order. Liberal democ-
racy was not finally consolidated in Southern Europe until relatively
late, and when it was achieved, it tended toward the form Sartori (1976)
called polarized pluralism, with many political parties, distinct in their
ideological orientations, ranging over a wide political spectrum and in-
cluding “antisystem” parties on the right and left. France and Italy had
the strongest Communist parties in Western Europe, parties that are still
important in the twenty-first century; both also have significant right-
wing parties. As we saw in Chapter 3, Lane and Ersson’s (1991) index of
polarization, which reflects the ideological distances between parties and
the strength of antisystem parties, shows France with an average score of
5.1 for the period from 1945–89, Portugal 4.7, Greece and Italy 3.7, and
Spain 3.4 (Portugal and Spain included only from 1975), as compared
with a European average of 3.1.
Polarization has surely diminished in Southern Europe during the last
couple of decades of the twentieth century. This is part of the process
of “secularization” we will discuss in Chapter 8, though as we shall see
it is not without some countertrends, including the growth of the anti-
immigrant extreme right in France. The two main Spanish parties today
are catch-all parties not greatly different in their policy views, though
the antagonisms between them are greater than the policy differences
15
might suggest. Putnam (1993: 33) gives data on changing political at-
titudes of local government officials in Italy, showing, for example, that
while in 1970 50 percent believed that “to compromise with one’s polit-
ical opponents is dangerous because it usually leads to betrayal of one’s
own side,” only 29 percent expressed this view in 1989. And across the
region, while significant minorities still expressed sympathy for author-
itarianism in the 1970s, antidemocratic views are no stronger today in
the Mediterranean countries than in the rest of Europe (Gunther and
Montero 2001).
Nevertheless, the development of the media in the region has
been deeply affected by the political patterns of polarized pluralism.
15 The Socialist party followed essentially free-market policies while it was in power and
similartothePartidoPopularisbasicallyacatch-allparty.TheUnitedLeftstillremains
as an ideological party and radical nationalist parties also exist. But beyond this,
Spanish politics probably has more of the style and tone of polarized pluralism than
the actual ideological differences suggest: those on the left tend to associate the Partido
Popular with Francoism, while the Populares believe that the PSOE tried during its
fourteen-year rule to monopolize power. The two parties have only exchanged roles,
between government and opposition, once since the transition to democracy, and
Spanish politics still has something of the feel of an all or nothing struggle for power.
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