Of Slaves and Clients.
Any Future for European
PBS?
Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
Hertie School of Governance
pippidi@hertie-school.org
STATE
GOVERNMENT
BROADCASTING
PUBLIC SPHERE
EMERGING/NATIONBUILDING
Revolutionary
National
mobilization.
Literacy
Nationalist
AUTHORITARIAN
Despotic
Black
propaganda;
indoctrination
Compliance to
rebellion
CLIENTELISTIC
Particularistic
Misinformation;
diversion
Absent
(factionalism,
partitocrazia)
LIBERAL
Democratic
Civic
mobilization
Important
• MAIN QUESTION: What explains the
variation across cases of government
behavior towards PB?
• MAIN THESIS: Treatment of PB is a
function of political clientelism as
manifested through high politicization of
the state
• Clientelism = pattern of social organization in
which access to social resources is controlled by
patrons and delivered to clients in exchange for
deference and various kinds of support.
• Particularistic and asymmetrical form of social
organization, and is typically contrasted with
forms of citizenship in which access to resources
is based on universalistic criteria and formal
equality before the law
• Greater prevalence of clientelism is connected
with the late development of democracy (Hallin
and Papathanassoupoulos, 2000)
• Clientelism is also an indispensable part of
democracy development
A model of autonomy of PB – a
parsimonious model
• Clientelism/politicization of public
administration
• Tradition of state interventionism/ Market
liberalization
• Ideology (monetarism)
Association between performance
and politicization
Countries
Market share
Government
neutrality
(1-7) GCF
State exploitation
(mean 4.6)
Busse
No private
channels
Bulgaria
14
2.4/111
8.3
126
Czech Republic
31
2.5/110
7.00
174
Estonia
16
3.5/44
1.6
14
Hungary
15
2.4/112
1.4
544
Latvia
16
2.9/83
8.7
36
Lithuania
14
2.9/81
2.4
65
Poland
44
2.5/105
4.4
322
Romania
7
2.4/113
-----
130
Slovenia
31
3.2/62
2.1
103
Slovakia
22
2.3/116
6.00
66
Policy options
1.Annihilation
2.Commercialization
3.Europeanization
• Is there a one size fits all solution in EU public
broadcasting?
• Can Europe help by regulation create a public
sphere where it is not?