Page 152 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Three Models

been manifested in public policies supporting the press and an attempt
to build public service broadcasting as an arena open to all social and
political groups. These ideals, however, have been confounded with a
political culture more inclined toward particularism than the general
interest, so the result has been very different than in the Democratic
Corporatist countries. In Spain, Portugal, and Greece the welfare state
is weaker, reflecting both more limited resources and a later transition,
coming at a time when neoliberalism was on the rise globally. 17
The strong role played by the state in the development of the media
reflects this general pattern. Bechelloni (1980: 233–4) writes,

In Italy...all cultural undertakings were economically fragile, re-
quiring, with some exceptions, help from the state or from private
patrons in order to survive. This had two important consequences:
thereneverweremanyeconomicallyself-sufficientculturalorjour-
nalistic enterprises, and intellectuals and journalists...alwayslived
in a state of financial uncertainty and hence enjoyed little auton-
omy. The state, which was in control of this situation, always had
ample opportunities for maneuver and interference. ...

The centrality of the state in Southern Europe means not only that the
state intervenes relatively strongly in the media institutions, but also to
some extent the reverse. Because the state is so important, other social
actors have a strong stake in influencing state policy, and one of the
principal ways they do this is through the media. Business, in particular,
often has a powerful stake in access to state contracts, subsidies, waivers
of regulations, and so on. This is one of the reasons business owners
17
The following table gives the rankings of the Mediterranean countries among sixteen
West European countries in two measures of the size of the state sector, for 1985,

Government Disbursements Total Tax Revenues As
As%ofGDP %ofGDP
France 6 6
Greece 9 12
Italy 11 13
Portugal 13 15
Spain 15 16

Greece was relatively high in total government expenditure at the time represented in
these figures. However, its social expenditure was the lowest and its military expen-
diture the highest in Western Europe, as a percent of GDP (Lane and Ersson 1991:
328–35).

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