Page 29 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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Introduction

in the following chapter, but briefly they are the Liberal Model, which
prevails across the Britain, Ireland, and North America; the Democratic
Corporatist Model, which prevails across northern continental Europe;
and the Polarized Pluralist Model, which prevails in the Mediterranean
countries of southern Europe. The Liberal Model is characterized by a
relative dominance of market mechanisms and of commercial media;
the Democratic Corporatist Model by a historical coexistence of com-
mercial media and media tied to organized social and political groups,
and by a relatively active but legally limited role of the state; and the
Polarized Pluralist Model by integration of the media into party politics,
weaker historical development of commercial media, and a strong role
of the state. We will try to show that the characteristics that define these
models are interrelated, that they result from a meaningful pattern of
historical development, and do not merely co-occur accidentally. We will
also use these models to organize the discussion of the media systems of
individual countries, trying to show how each country’s media system
does and does not fit these patterns.
Many qualifications must be introduced as soon as we begin to use
these models. They are ideal types, and the media systems of individual
countries fit them only roughly. There is considerable variation among
countries that we will be grouping together in our discussion of these
models. The British and American media systems (which we will discuss
asexamplesoftheLiberalModel)areinfactquitedifferentinmanyways,
even though it is common to talk about the Anglo-American model of
journalism as though it were singular. Italy, with a “consensus” polit-
ical system and a full half-century of democratic government is quite
different from Spain, with a majoritarian system and a much later tran-
sition to democracy, though both are close to the Polarized Pluralist
Model in many characteristics. We will discuss Germany in relation to
the Democratic Corporatist Model, though it is quite different from
the small democracies that represent the classic cases of that model.
We will discuss France in relation to the Polarized Pluralist Model of
the Mediterranean countries, but we shall see that it is something of a
mixed case between the Polarized Pluralist and Democratic Corporatist
Models, as Britain is a mixed case between the Liberal and Democratic
Corporatist Models. In part we hope that the models will be useful pre-
cisely in bringing these variations to light. It should be stressed that
their primary purpose is not classification of individual systems, but the
identification of characteristic patterns of relationship between system
characteristics.

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