INFORMATION SOCIETY OR INFORMATION ECONOMY? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF GERMAN INFORMATION SOCIETY POLITICS

摘要

The German government's political strategy for moving toward the information society via liberalization of telecommunications and broadcasting is completely in line with the European Commission. The information society is mainly conceived as an information economy. Although it is stressed that everybody must be able to participate, the government does not see the necessity to take any provisions besides liberalization. Public interests and civil rights are not considered as goals which need special measures to be achieved. Rather it is assumed that they will be reached by liberalization. The policy process is heavily influenced by and centered around very few large companies. In contrast to similar government programs in the past, there is no criticism by public interest groups, trade unions or the Social Democratic and the Green Party, that are traditionally expected to take care of the public interests and social concerns. They were able to put issues like universal service and public access on the agenda, but have not succeeded to bring these issues into legislation so far. The global trend of economization coincides with a process of weakening public interest institutions. This paper closes by asking whether there is still a chance for strengthening civil rights issues besides economic goals and even if there is a dominance of economic interests, whether these can be realized in the long-run without the further development of public infrastructures and a strengthened democracy.