Page 178 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Three Models

Eventually, as we shall see, the balance shifted decisively against the
political press, and today in the Democratic Corporatist countries com-
mercial newspapers clearly dominate. Nevertheless, we shall argue in a
later section of this chapter that the history of a strong political press still
shapes the media systems of Northern and Central Europe in important
ways.

THE STATE AND THE MEDIA
In our view the state has a responsibility for the mass media. Firstly,
it has the responsibility to ensure that freedom of expression and
freedom of the press are formally and in reality guaranteed by legis-
lation.Journalistsmustbeguaranteedtherighttoseekinformation
and to disseminate their knowledge. However, the state’s responsi-
bility is wider than this. In the service of democracy and its citizens
the state has a responsibility to create and maintain an information
and press system that will accommodate many and diverse voices
(Gustafsson 1980: 104).

As we have seen, liberalism triumphed early in Northern Europe, and
most of the Democratic Corporatist countries have been characterized
since the early nineteenth century by limited state power. In the media
sphere, this has been manifested in strong protections for press freedom
and strong provisions on public access to government information.
The development of democratic corporatism in the early twenti-
eth century, however, modified the liberal tradition in important ways.
Democratic corporatism, as we shall see in greater detail in the last sec-
tion of this chapter, was formed out of a process of bargaining among
social interests, including most prominently capital, labor, and agrar-
ian interests. A key part of that bargain involved the expansion of the
welfare state, and a strong welfare state is among the distinctive charac-
teristics of the countries of Northern and Central Europe. This is one
of the most important differences in political structure and culture be-
tween the Democratic Corporatist and the Liberal countries. It is also
something they share with France and Italy among the Mediterranean
countries; less so with Greece, Spain, and Portugal, where the state has
played an important social role, but the ideology of social democracy
has been much weaker. There are differences among the Democratic
Corporatist countries in this respect. Katzenstein (1985) distinguishes
between what he calls social corporatism, which prevails in Austria,
Norway,andDenmark,andliberalcorporatism,exemplifiedbyBelgium,

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