Page 261 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

P1: GCV/KAA P2: kaf
0521835356c07.xml Hallin 0 521 83535 6 January 21, 2004 16:24

The North Atlantic or Liberal Model

democracies covered here, though it developed later in the younger
Irish system, where separation from government control took place
in 1961.
More generally, the experience of the Liberal countries suggests that
the conception of politics inherent in majoritarianism reinforces the
notion that media, like other political institutions, represent a unitary
general interest of society, and in this sense majoritarianism tends to be
associated with professionalization, separation of media from particular
social groups, and the norm of objectivity.

Rational-Legal Authority
Party politics in both Britain and the United States was based on per-
vasive patronage systems through the middle of the nineteenth century.
In each case, however, there was a strong movement by a “rationaliz-
ing bourgeoisie” (Shefter 1977) that resulted in a shift toward neutral,
professionalized administration. These movements were motivated, in
part, by a concern that a complex national market system could not op-
erate without a predictable, rule-governed political and legal structure
and an efficient administrative apparatus capable of providing a widely
available infrastructure that would permit broad economic growth and
dealing with the externalities of industrialization. Civil service reform
dates from 1870 in Britain and a bit later in the United States. Both now
have strong systems of neutral administration based on meritocratic re-
cruitment and promotion and separation of the civil service from party
politics (Heclo 1984; Rose 1984). Clientelist politics did survive in many
city governments in the United States well into the twentieth century, but
mostly faded at the national level. Ireland has long had a kind of clien-
telist system in the relation of politicians with their local constituencies
19
(Carty 1981), though it also has a civil service and judicial system very
similar to those of Britain.
An autonomous legal system with considerable power is also an im-
portantpartofrational-legalauthorityinLiberalcountries.Autonomyof
the legal system is in part built into the decentralized nature of common-
law systems, which assign an important role both to juries and to law
made through judicial precedent rather than legislation (the jury system
always made it difficult for the state in Britain and its former colonies

19
Carty notes that Ireland – similar to the Mediterranean countries – is a Catholic
country that industrialized late and where a rural peasant culture survived well into
the twentieth century.

243