Page 24 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Barbara Pfetsch and Frank Esser

Against this background, it is all the more remarkable that we lack a
comprehensive publication in the English-speaking world that brings to
the fore and discusses the questions and concepts as well as the appli-
cations and problems of comparative political communication research.
1
Sucha publication has become all the more important as we can mean-
while document a rapid development of relevant research. During the
1990s, various productive networks of researchers working across na-
tional borders were formed that were responsible for a series of promi-
nent and fruitful projects. Moreover, the process of European integra-
tion gives the activities on this side of the Atlantic further impetus. Any
doubts pertaining to the benefits and the prospect of the comparative ap-
proachhavebeenabandoned.Hence,MichaelGurevitchandJayBlumler
(Chapter 14, this volume) note: “Far from being neglected, comparative
political research has almost become fashionable.” With this in mind,
the challenge now is to revisit and systematize the manifold studies into a
comprehensive“state-of-the-art”report,whichisasuitabledocumentof
the advances of comparative research in this subfield of communication
science.
Going beyond the sociology of communication science as an aca-
demic discipline, this volume also allows for the deeper insight that
political communication processes in themselves are by no means to be
understood as delimited phenomena. In the twenty-first century we are
confronted with developments in the realm of politics and mass com-
munications that rule out the conception of political communication as
aphenomenon that could be defined within singular national, cultural,
or linguistic boundaries. In fact, the challenge today is to face the devel-
opments and consequences arising from the modernization and global-
ization of political processes. This is not least necessary because we now
know that the structures and processes of media development and com-
munications do systematically impact the development of democracy,
the legitimization of political power, and the participation in politics
(Chapter 6, this volume).
However, studies on the relationship between political communica-
tion and the quality of democracy across different countries (Gunther
and Mughan 2000; Thomass and Tzankoff 2001) reveal that the role
of political communication is by no means consistent. It is far more
dependent on whether established “old” democracies or so-called new

1
AGerman edition of this volume was publishedbyWestdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden,
2003, under the title Politische Kommunikation im internationalen Vergleich –
Grundlagen, Anwendungen, Perspektiven.

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