The Contagiousness of Conflict: E.E. Schattschneider as a theorist of the information society

Abstract

A b s t r a c tElmer Eric Schattschneider was one of the most distinguished US political scientists of his day but beyond an isolated footnote, his work rarely receives much attention today. This paper suggests that there is much in Schattschneider's work that deserves renewed attention. In 1960, Schattschneider published The Semisovereign People, a study of the transformation of US politics from a set of regional hegemonies to a genuinely national political system. While this may seem arcane to students of the information society, The Semisovereign People actually offers a conceptual toolkit for understanding the way in which new information and communications technologies are changing the global political landscape. In an era of satellite television, the Internet and the mobile phone, Schattschneider's key concepts of scope, visibility and the socialization of con ict provide powerful insights into the politics of a globalizing world. E.E. Schattschneider thought he was writing a book about the nationalization of US politics in the middle of the twentieth century in fact what he actually wrote was a theory of political globalization. I N T R O D U C T I O NCompared with the volume of writing on the economics, sociology and culture of the information society, relatively little attention is given to its political implications. Authors tend to address the politics of the information society rather than how informationalization changes political life. This article argues that one way of understanding how politics is changed in a more transparent society can be found in the work of E. E. Schattschneider. Particularly in The Semisovereign People (1960), he explores the dynamics of politics in a shrinking world where publicity becomes a key weapon. While Schattschneider's concern was with the implications of the nationalization of US political life during the twentieth century, his key concepts of scope, visibility and the socialization of con ict are of even greater value in an era of satellite television, the Internet and the mobile phone. Schattschneider makes a trenchant case for the autonomy and importance of political activity both analytically and morally defending the claims of democracy and unmasking the limitations of contemporary politics. In doing this, he provides

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“…This consensus might be misleading, though, since there is no agreement among scholars as to what constitutes TD. (p. 1285) True, new media are widening the scope, visibility, and the socialization of conflict in governments (Brown, 2002) but they are also forcing governments to reinvent and democratize political process (Simon, 2002). For instance "cryptography and related technologies … may undermine the concentrations of power that we are currently familiar with, thus allowing us to take on substantially more individual responsibility" (Ludlow, 2001: vii).…”

Communication Law and Policy: The State of Research and Theory

“…Of course, this statement does not mean that theory currently is not valued. Some of the most meaningful studies in the content analysis pool (e.g., Attias, 2004;Brown, 2002;Bunker, 1997;Comor, 2001;Leung, 2002;Lin, 2003;Ruggiero, 2000) included full use of theories that both enriched the interpretability of the findings and suggested the significance of the work. Such work should be encouraged.…”

Communication Law and Policy: The State of Research and Theory

“…Of course, this statement does not mean that theory currently is not valued. Some of the most meaningful studies in the content analysis pool (e.g., Attias, 2004;Brown, 2002;Bunker, 1997;Comor, 2001;Leung, 2002;Lin, 2003;Ruggiero, 2000) included full use of theories that both enriched the interpretability of the findings and suggested the significance of the work. Such work should be encouraged.…”