Page 285 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Forces and Limits of Homogenization

In some accounts this is connected with a shift from voting based on
party and group loyalty to issue-based voting. Some also mention that
patronage systems have declined, in part because of economic integra-
tion, particularly with the formation of the European Monetary Union,
and the pressures it puts on government budgets, undercutting the abil-
ity of parties to provide material incentives to their active supporters
(Kitschelt2000;Papathanassopoulos2000).Theriseofnewdemographic
groups as a result of immigration may also have weakened the old order,
both because the new populations are not integrated into traditional
group-based structures and because tensions over immigration lead to
the defection of traditional adherents.
Finally, many have argued that globalization and economic integra-
tion have weakened political parties by shifting the locus of decision
making away from the national political spheres that the parties dom-
inated. As Beck (2000) puts it, the nation state was the “container” for
policy decisions as well as other social processes that affected citizens
across most areas of life. The nation state has progressively lost this
role of “container,” and many of the decisions affecting its citizens are
now taken at a supranational level, removing power from the state and
therefore from political parties, organizations, and interest groups that
represent the interests of the citizens. The constraints of the emerging
global economic regime tend to force parties to abandon distinct policy
positions that once defined their identities, and also hinders their ability
todeliverbenefitstotheirconstituents.Theseconstraintsalsospecifically
force the harmonization of media policy in many cases, often disrupt-
ing the previously existing relations between the state, political parties,
and the media. Thus Canada feels pressure to abandon protection of
national cultural industries and Scandinavia feels pressure to liberalize
regulations on advertising. Clientelist patterns of political alliance in
Spain, meanwhile, are disrupted by the fact that companies can appeal
to Brussels to overturn regulatory decisions made in Madrid.

MEDIA SYSTEM CHANGE: CAUSE OR EFFECT
The changes in European media systems outlined at the beginning of this
chapter – particularly the shift toward catchall media, models of jour-
nalistic professionalism based on political neutrality, and a shift toward
media-oriented forms of political communication – are surely related
to this process of secularization. But which is the tail and which is the
dog? Is media system change simply one result of these changes in society

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