International Journal of Communications Law & Policy

CHALLENGES TO AUTHORITY, BURDEN OF LEGITIMISATION:
THE PRINTING PRESS AND THE INTERNET
By Zack Kertcher and Ainat N. Margalit

Download the Paper in PDF Format: IJCLP Web-Doc 3-10-2005

Abstract

The Internet is often regarded as a challenge to the nation-state’s ability to regulate flows of finance, information, and symbols. Rather than examining whether it is possible to enforce regulation on such a media, this paper addresses two additional fundamental questions: (1) what do regulatory discourses and attempts to regulate reveal about the nation-state’s political authority under globalisation, and (2) how does this authority vary across social, political, and cultural contexts? In order to address these challenging queries we follow a unique path, both empirically and theoretically. Theoretically, we argue that political authority is a pivotal common denominator that undergirds diverse understandings of globalisation. We then critically examine different conceptions of political authority and construct a typology that orients our study. Empirically, we follow our typology by comparing two historical phenomena: attempts by the Catholic Church to regulate the printing press during the 15th and 16th centuries, and attempts by China, Malaysia and the United States to regulate the Internet. Despite certain important commonalities, we posit that each of these cases illustrates a different model of the legitimisation processes and transformations in political authority that occur under globalisation.

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