Book Review: International Politics and Economics, Mass Media and National Development
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900411 |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| Author | Marshall McLuhan |
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
560
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
Nigeria),
sphere
(economics)
or
programme
(UN
assistance).
The
essays
of
Braibanti,
Riggs
and
LaPalombara
invite
special
comment
because
they
challenge
convictions
widely held
in
the
United
States.
While
each
would
accept
Eisenstadt's
position
that
bureaucracies
may
either
retard
or
advance
various
modernization processes,
one
empha-
sizes
that
a
corrupt,
particularistic
civil
service
may
be
quite
compatible
with
economic
growth
(LaPalombara),
Another
contends
that
it
may
facilitate
political
development (Riggs).
Efficient
"Weberian" bureau-
cracies
are
said
to endanger
such
centres
of
countervailing
power
as
legislatures, parties,
courts,
entrepreneurs
and
voluntary
societies
(Riggs).
It
is
also
alleged
that
civil
servants
of
the
American
type,
egalitarian
and
technically
specialized,
may
be
divisive
elements
in
new
states,
whereas
aristocratic generalists
bred
in
the
British tradition
often
supply
needed
social cement
(Braibanti).
Although
the
reader
is
left
to
wonder
about
the
conditions
under
which
these assertions
may
be
valid, he
does
emerge
with an
assurance
that
bureaucratic
power
and
policy
have
enormous
political
significance.
In
this
sense
both
books
signal
the
end
of
the
era
in
which
the
study
of
public
administration
was
depoliticized
by
management
experts
and
behavioural
scientists
concerned
with
organization
per
se.
Not
the
least
important
by-product of
today's comparative
analyses
of
the
develop-
ment
process
is
the
rediscovery
that
bureaucracy
lies
at
the
heart
of
the
state.
Dartmouth
College
LAURENCE
RADWAY
MASS
MEDIA
AND
NATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT.
The
Role
of
Information
in
the
Developing
Countries.
By
Wilbur
Schramm.
1964.
(Stanford:
Stanford
University
Press.
xiv,
333pp.
$7.50)
Professor
Schramm's
foreword indicates
his
study to
be
"part
of
the
continuing
effort of
the
United
Nations
and
uwEsco
to
help
develop
the
mass
media
of
communication."
It
was
reported
to
the
General
Assembly
of
the
United
Nations
in
1962
that
"70
percent
of
the
population
of
the
world
lack
adequate
information
facilities
and
are thus
denied
effec-
tive
enjoyment
of
the
right
to information".
That
statement
is
a
far
cry
from
the
nineteenth
century
insistence
on
the human
right
to
self-expression.
So
basic
was
the
concept
of
self-expression
that
John
Ruskin
could
greet the
opening
of
cable
ser-
vices
to
India
with
the
derisive
query,
'"W-hat
have
we
to
say
to India?"
Today
it
is
assumed
that
the human
right
to
media
facilities
is
on
the
same
plane
as the
right
to nourishment:
If
UNESCO's
minimum
standards
were
achieved,
it
would
mean
that
approximately
one
out
of
every
two
families
would
have
a
daily
newspaper,
and
one
out
of
every
four
families,
a
radio
receiver.
There
would
be one
television
set and
one
cinema
seat
for
every
ten
families.
Not
too
much to
ask.
To
a
large
extent Professor
Schramm's
survey
is
an
inventory
of
the
media resources
of
the
underdeveloped
countries
of
the
world.
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