Page 151 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model

closeness of the relationship between political actors and the media, the
heavy focus of the media on political life, and the relatively elitist na-
ture of journalism, addressed to political insiders rather than to a broad
mass public. This pattern has been most characteristic of Italy. In the
other Mediterranean countries it has been modified by majoritarianism,
though it still applies to a significant degree. It is something the Mediter-
ranean countries share in important ways with Democratic Corporatist
systems, particularly those that tend toward polarized pluralism.
Also similar to the Democratic Corporatist countries, the political
systems of the Mediterranean region have been characterized by “affil-
iational” rather than “issue” voting. That is, individuals have tended to
“cast their vote as a statement of subjective identification with a political
force they believe to be integrally, and not just representatively, identi-
fied with their own social group,” (Parisi and Pasquino 1977: 224) rather
than evaluating the specific issue positions or candidates of each party.
This has again been more true of some countries than others – less true
for example of Spain, where the two biggest parties are catch-all parties
and social roots of political parties are more shallow (though the par-
ties of the left, whose histories go back to the pre-Franco period, have
more “affiliational” attachment of their voters). Where the pattern has
been strong it has meant that political communication has been less a
matter of winning over an uncommitted mass public and more a mat-
ter of mobilizing particular political groups, expressing their positions
to other groups, and, again, conducting the process of bargaining with
those other groups. In contrast to the Democratic Corporatist countries,
moreover, the bargaining process is not guided by a conception of the
general interest: what comes first is the particular interest of the group
to which each medium is linked.

The Role of the State
The late development of capitalism in Southern Europe is also connected
with the strong role played by the state. With the market poorly devel-
oped, the state played a particularly central role in the accumulation of
capital. In the absence of a strong bourgeoisie and civil society, it also
played a central role in organizing modern social life. In Greece and
Spain, for instance, the army often substituted in the nineteenth century
for the middle class as a center of initiative for social change (Malefakis
1995). In France and Italy, the consolidation of democracy led to the
development of a strong welfare state similar to that of the Democratic
Corporatist societies of Northern Europe. Particularly in Italy, this has

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