DEMOCRACY OR TECHNOCRACY? AN ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC AND EXPERT PARTICIPATION IN FCC POLICYMAKING
Open Access
- Author:
- Obar, Jonathan Alan
- Graduate Program:
- Mass Communications
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 29, 2010
- Committee Members:
- Amit Schejter, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Amit Schejter, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Matthew Paul Mcallister, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Michael Elavsky, Committee Member
Jeremy Engels, Committee Member
Phil Napoli, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Technocracy
Democracy
Public Involvement
Media ownership
FCC
policy
Civic Engagement - Abstract:
- The longstanding debate over the place of the public’s voice in government decision-making has its roots in ancient Athens. Since that time, those that have opposed public involvement have called for government by an elite group of experts – a system of societal organization termed ‘democratic elitism’ by contemporary scholars. Conversely, those that have championed greater public involvement in the political process have argued that the public’s voice is an essential check on elitist, technocratic government bodies whose closed-door perspectives are a threat to societal justice. In light of the rising popularity of more inclusionary models of democracy that seemingly echo the sentiments of the latter, this study questions the extent of public involvement in the Federal Communications Commission’s 2006-2008 review of its media ownership rules. The sequence of events highlighted by an assessment of the FCC’s public hearing and online comment submission processes, quantitative content analyses of the public’s comments, and a review of the FCC’s Report and Order revealed that the Commission repeatedly subordinated the public’s voice to the views of experts and stakeholders. An additional analysis of two interviews conducted with grassroots organizers also revealed that the FCC’s lackluster public mobilization techniques were supplemented by the efforts of various grassroots organizations. The software and form letters provided by these groups to help involve the public in the deliberations speak to the disconnect that exists between a technocratic FCC and a public voice demanding to be heard.