Globalization, Liberalization and Policy Change: A Political Economy of India’s Communications Sector

287 Pages·1997·34.932 MB·English

by  Stephen D. McDowell (auth.)

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FEMINISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Globalization,
Liberalization and
Policy Change
A Political Economy of India's
Communications Sector
Stephen D. McDowell
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Foreword by Bella Mody
College of Communication
Michigan State University
flfl
First published in Great Britain 1997 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills. Basingstoke. Hampshire RG2 I 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-39749-5 ISBN 978-0-230-37463-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230374638
---------~
First published in the United States of America 1997 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue. New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-16280-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McDowell. Stephen D., 1958-
Globalization, liberalization and policy change: a political
economy of India's communications sector I Stephen D. McDowell.
p. cm.-(lnternational political economy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-16280-1 (cloth)
I. Telecommunication policy-India. 2. Telecommunication
-Deregulation-India. I. Title. II. Series.
HE8375.M35 1996
384'.068-dc20 96--22553
CIP
© Stephen D. McDowell 1997
Foreword © Bella Mody 1997
All rights reserved. No reproduction. copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988. or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency. 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WI P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his rights to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright. Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97
To my mother, Elsie, who first took me to a library

Contents
List of Tables viii
Foreword: Challenging Liberalization and Globalization ix
by Bella Mody
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xvi
Abbreviations and Acronyms xviii
1 Policy Change in Indian Communications 1
2 The Conventional Account of Liberalization 14
3 Historical and Critical Perspectives 37
4 India's Political Economy in a Global Context 59
5 Trade in Services Negotiations 87
6 Telecommunications Policies 123
7 Software and Computer Service Exports 167
8 Audiovisual Services and Broadcasting 195
9 Opening Policy Choices 224
Notes 234
Index 261
vn
List of Tables
2.1 Conventional account of communications and economic 24
policy liberalization
2.2 Modernization and development communications 26
2.3 Infrastructure and telecommunications for development 29
2.4 Liberalization and transnational communications 33
3.1 Dependency theory and communications for development 46
3.2 Participation and democratic communications 50
3.3 Gender analysis of communications 54
4.1 An alternative account of communications policy 85
liberalization
5.1 An alternative account of services policy liberalization 89
5.2 Perspectives on India's participation in trade in services 110
negotiations
6.1 An alternative account of telecommunications policy 126
liberalization
6.2 Critiques of India's telecommunications services and 132
policies in the early 1980s
6.3 Perspectives on telecommunications policies in the 1990s 146
7.1 An alternative account of software policy liberalization 169
7.2 PSUs and programs supported by the Department of 188
Electronics
7.3 Perspectives on India's software policies 192
8.1 An alternative account of audiovisual policy liberalization 199
8.2 Perspectives on India's audiovisual policies 218
Vlll
Foreword: Challenging
Liberalization and
Globalization
Political scientist Stephen McDowell's book is an excellent antidote to the
Utopian rhetoric on liberalization of telecommunications. While the study
is empirically grounded in the particulars of India's political and economic
contexts, it is primarily a theoretical argument on the political economy of
telecommunications in the 1990s. It systematically contrasts two theoreti
cal explanations. On the one hand, there is the neo-liberal story put out by
governments, promoters of structural adjustment such as the World Bank
and the IMF, and their consultants. McDowell compares this with his
preferred explanation that builds on Robert Cox's historically based criti
cal analysis and includes production relations, ideology and institutions.
The evolution of liberalization in India from 1984 to 1994 is examined
in three specific areas: telecom services, computer software and electronic
mass media. The study is based on historical and contemporary documen
tary research and interviews conducted in India in 1989-90, and subse
quently in the US and Canada. While McDowell insists he is not an
Asianist or India hand, area studies specialists interested in technology
policy and political economy will find much of value.
Since the late 1950s, the US has led the world in establishing separate
departments and colleges of mass communication and now telecommuni
cation, as distinct units in colleges and universities. That the ubiquity and
centrality of these phenomena justify specialised treatment is not in ques
tion. In our eagerness to legitimize this separation, we academics in separ
ate colleges of communication have studied communication in isolation
from its social, economic and political contexts that it is part. We have put
the sector under a microscope as if it were no more than a physical pheno
menon and explained its performance in terms of its component parts: the
hardware, software production and programming, organization and man
agement, history and economics, marketing, sales promotion, costs and
finance, audience size and impacts. We have trained persons with special
ized skills to staff the departments of government and industry without
questioning the interests of the present private profit-maximising economic
system: producers, audience researchers, managers, and administrators.
We also need to educate our students to imagine alternative ownership and
IX