Page 167 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Political Organizations
“completely integrated” with all other techniques, in the words of one
official. 98 The group still engaged in more traditional lobbying and
“science and the law” activities, but these were now part of a very differ-
ent political organization, one connected to an expanded but new kind
of membership and engaged in new types of political organizing in con-
cert with a loose network of other organizations. The language used by
the ED official to describe how new technology affects his group reveals
its transformative character. He says that the Internet is “not just a lob-
bying tool”; it affects the organization more deeply by altering its basic
relationships. 99

EDUCATION POLICY

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 constituted the first comprehen-
sive overhaul of U.S. telecommunication policy since 1934, when the
Communications Act originally established a regulatory framework for
broadcast media. 100 As a result of dramatic technological and economic
innovations since the days of radio, policy change on a large order was
long overdue by the 1990s. Virtually every political actor with an interest
in telecommunications sought some form of new regulatory framework.
When the law passed in 1996, its provisions spanned telephone service,
cable and other video services, broadcast, and telecommunications ser-
vices in schools. The act qualified as one of the most complex policy
packages of the 1990s, crafted as an omnibus bill balanced on a great
variety of compromises. Its primary aim was to promote freer competi-
tion and remove outmoded barriers to technological innovation. In the
official language of the law, it was “an act to promote competition and
reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality ser-
vices for American telecommunications consumers and encourage the
rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies.” 101
In addition to providing for deregulation that would soon change
telecommunications, Congress also established in the 1996 law a set of

98 99
Smith, telephone interview. Ibid.
100
This case is based chiefly on an examination of public records and twelve interviews.
Interviews included staff of the American Association of School Administrators,
the National School Boards Association, the National Association of Independent
Schools, the Juno Advocacy Coalition, EdLiNC, the Federal Communications Com-
mission, the American Library Association, the Universal Service Administrative
Company, and the National Education Association. Most of the research and an
initial analysis were conducted by Eric Patterson, doctoral student in the Political
Science department at UCSB.
101
Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. LA. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (1996).
150