Technologies of freedoms: How culture shapes the liberating potential of communication technologies.

摘要

New communication technologies have been hailed as having a potential to bring freedom and democracy to the world, and this dissertation aims to examine some of these claims in a comparative, international context. More specifically, I focus on the mediating role of horizontal communication technologies (i.e. telephone, mobile telephone and the Internet) in the relationship between cultural factors and political development.;In my theoretical model, political culture is viewed as shaping the structure, regulation and uses of horizontal communication networks, and hence having an influence on whether and how these networks are put to democratizing uses. In this dissertation, I view political culture as being strongly influence by religious traditions and political history of any given society, while focusing on two specific characteristics of new horizontal technologies, namely their levels of accessibility and decentralization. My key assertion is that new horizontal technologies are more reflective of the dominant political culture of a society than it has been the case with traditional vertical media such as radio and television. Hence, in the case when mass values are supportive of democracy, culture is likely to promote the development of highly decentralized and easily accessible communication systems and foster their democratizing uses.;My results suggest that horizontal communication networks such as telephone, mobile telephone and the Internet truly matter for political development. I find evidence suggesting that the levels of accessibility and decentralization of horizontal networks are positively linked with institutional and effective democracy, as well as with economic competitiveness. Furthermore, my findings indicate that these structural characteristics are influenced by cultural values, which partly stem from religious traditions (e.g. Protestantism, Catholicism, Confucianism, etc.) and political history (e.g. communism) of a society in which horizontal networks are deployed. My results also indicate that cultural factors shape the regulatory and legal environment in which horizontal networks are developed and operated, and influence how these networks are being used by citizens.