(Page 2 of 21) - Self- and Co-Regulation as Indicators of a Transformed Statehood in the Mediamatics Sector authored by Just, Natascha. and Latzer, Michael.

Tracking Number ICA-1-10510

- 2 -

In the context of our analysis transformation is understood as socio-technological

paradigm shift, as modernisation process and institutional change. The socio-
technological paradigm shift

underlines the interactive change of technological and

societal systems which is first recognized on a cognitive level, followed – with a time
lag – on the institutional, organizational level. Transformation is analysed as a
modernisation process

, as it describes the efforts of modern societies to stimulate

innovations and reforms in order to cope with new challenges as posed by
mediamatics and the digital economy. The perspective of transformation as
institutional change is to underline the importance of the specific design of
institutions (norms and organizations), of culture (understood in a wide sense), of
decisions made in the past, of the particular point in history in the assessment of
reform options etc. Hence, one best solution for different countries or for one
country at different points in time cannot exist.

We will start with an overview and a brief characterization of the transformed

statehood within the mediamatics sector, followed by an analysis of increased self-
and co-regulation. Against this background we will then analyse recent EU policy
initiatives on self- and co-regulation.

Transformed Statehood in the Mediamatics Sector

A major characteristic of the information society is the changing role of the state,
leading, altogether, to a transformed statehood in the mediamatics sector. The term
statehood underlines the specific perspective, in particular, that changes are analysed
from the standpoint of the state which traditionally played a pivotal role in the
development of the communications sector. Our functional approach to statehood

particular focusses on the control- and regulatory-function of the state. Transformed
statehood includes changes of polity – the institutional setting, policy – the content
dimension, and politics – the process. Thus it encompasses both, changes of
processes to solve problems and of the political organisations/institutions. The
specific distribution of political responsibility and of tasks within and between states,
the applied policy instruments, the structure of policy networks and the organisation
of regulatory institutions, are, among others, characteristics of statehood.

For decades, a such defined statehood showed a worldwide stable, common

pattern in the communication sectors of developed countries.

However, it started to

erode roughly since the 1980s. In the upcoming mediamatics sector, the combination
of liberalization, convergence, fast technological change and globalization rendered
the old pattern of statehood obsolete. Indicators of a political control crisis are
information deficits of the regulators in a complex environment, slow reaction to fast
changing technologies, high regulatory costs as well as implementation and
effectiveness deficits due to the combination of national regulation and transnational

See Latzer 1997, 22f.

See Zapf 1995.

For a functional approach see Majone 1996a.

See Latzer 1997, 49ff.