Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:36:52.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Satellite Communnications: A Case Study of Technolog's Impact on Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Neil P. Hurley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One of the challenges which democracies face is to preserve the essential liberties of their citizenry while undergoing continual, even drastic, economic and technological development. Mario Einaudi has described the New Deal as an effort to translate eighteenth-century agrarian democracy into twentiethcentury industrial democracy without evacuating the unique values which the Founding Fathers wished to be transmitted. Since the days of FDR, the United States of America has created a distinct “social breakthrough” by being the first nation to enter the postindustrial age of nuclear energy, computers, television, rockets, missiles, wonder drugs, psychedelic techniques, fertility control techniques, and supersonic jet travel. That political processes cannot be divorced from the wider environmental matrix of sociotechnological innovations is a proposition which is gaining in acceptance. Acknowledging the incidence of technological invention on the political process, we have singled out for case study the history of the communications satellite technology, the creation of an unprecedented “chosen instrument” to establish a global system of communications satellites, and the subsequent formation of an international consortium whose members have codominion over the space segment of the global system. What interests us in this study is how technological leadership becomes converted into other forms of power such as economic, political, and commercial.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 1968 , pp. 170 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1968

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Einaudi, Mario, The Roosevelt Revolution (New York, 1959), 372.Google Scholar

2 Price, Don K., Government and Science: Their Dynamic Relation in American Democracy (New York, 1954);Google ScholarEulau, Heinz, The Behavioral Persuasion in Politics (New York, 1963)p. 141.Google ScholarLaKoff, Sanford A. (editor) Knowledge and Power: Essays on Science and Government (New York, 1966)p. 502.Google Scholar

1 Jaffee, Leonard, Communications in Space (New York, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Mueller, G. E. and Spangler, E. R., Communications Satellites (New York, 1965).Google Scholar

1 Wingert, Lowell F., “New Tools for Global Communication,” Bell Telephone Magazine (Summer, 1963), pp. 2 ff.Google Scholar

1 Cf. Coon, Horace, American Tel & Tel (New York, 1939), pp. 37 ff.Google Scholar

1 Dingman, James C., Vice-President of AT&T to Magnuson, Senator Warren, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, dated 04 19, 1962, and published in Hearings Before the Committee on Commerce, U.S. Senate, 87th Congress, 2nd Session (Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office), p. 317.Google Scholar

1 Blake, Richard A., “Telstar and Postliterate Man,” Thought, XXXVIII (Summer, 1963), 227–236.Google Scholar

1 Lasswell, Harold D., “Communication and the Mind,” in Control of the Mind, edited by Farber, Seymour M. and Wilson, Roger H. L. (New York, 1961), p. 253.Google Scholar

1 “Special Report: Communicating by Satellite,” Business Week (10 27, 1962), pp. 86 ff.Google Scholar

1 Arthur Clarke, C., “Extra Terrestrial Relays,” Wireless World (10, 1945).Google Scholar

1 “Communications Satellites: Government vs. Private Ownership Question,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (04, 1962).Google Scholar

1 Finney, John W., “Kennedy's Satellite Bill Meets Congress Resistance,” The New York Times (03 4, 1962), pp. 1, 44. It is interesting, as the Finney account reports, that former Senator Democratic Leader Scott Lucas registered as lobbyist for the Illinois Bell Telephone Co. in order to assist the AT&T cause.Google Scholar

1 Ownership of Communications Satellites by Firms, Public Ownership Blocked by House Panel,” The Wall Street Journal (04 20, 1962), p. 7.Google Scholar

1 Statement of the Honorable Kefauver, Estes, Senator from Tennessee, concerning Communications Satellite Legislation, Hearings Before the Committee on Commerce, U.S. Senate, 87th Congress, 2nd Session, 04 10, 1962 (Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office), p. 55.Google Scholar

1 Testimony of Mr. James E. Dingman, ibid., pp. 167–199.

1 Stein, P. M., “Issues Not Faced in the Telstar Filibuster,” The Reporter (09 13, 1962).Google Scholar

1 McDonald, John, “The COMSAT Compromise Starts a Revolution,” Fortune (10, 1965), pp. 128 ff.Google ScholarKvam, Roger A., “Comsat: The Inevitable Anomaly,” Knowledge and Power, op. cit., pp. 271–292.Google Scholar

1 Cf. statement of MrWelch, Leo D., Chairman of the Communications Satellite Corporation before the House Science and Astronautics Committee, 04 30, 1963;Google Scholar also cf. “Taking a Flyer in Outer Space,” Newsweek (03 16, 1964), pp. 85–90.Google Scholar

1 Vartan, Vartanig G., “Brokers Swamped with Advance Bids for Satellite Stocks,” The New York Times (05 5, 1964), p. 2.Google Scholar

1 MacKenzie, John R., “Industry Snaps U p Its Half of COMSAT Stock,” The Washington Post (05 28, 1964).Google Scholar

1 “Biggest Slice of 'COMSAT' to AT&T,” The Washington Post (05 28, 1964).Google Scholar

1 A presentation of McCormack, James, Chairman, and Matthews, A. Bruce, Vice-President and Treasurer of the Communications Satellite Corporation to the New York Society of Security Analysis, Incorporated, New York City, on 10 5, 1966.Google Scholar

1 MacKenzie, John P., “U.S. Will Press for Action on Communication Network,” The Washington Post (02 10, 1964), p. A6.Google Scholar

1 Organization of INTELSAT (Washington, D.C., International Development Division, 02 1, 1967).Google Scholar

1 The “built-in conflicts” and variegated interests have been comprehensively treated in three law journals: Levin, Harvey J., “Organization and Control of Communications Satellites,” 113 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 315 (1965), pp. 355 ff.;Google ScholarSchwartz, Herman, “Governmentally Appointed Directors in a Private Corporation — The Communication Satellite Act of 1962,” 79 Harvard Law Review 350 (1965), pp. 350 ff;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSchwartz, Herman, ““COMSAT, the Carriers, and the Earth Stations: Some Problems with ‘Melding Variegated Interests’”, 76 The Yale Law Journal 3 (1967), pp. 441 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

1 Sheibla, Shirley, “COMSAT revisited,” Barron's (07 5, 1965), pp. 3, 8.Google Scholar

1 Cheprov, Ivan, “Global or American Space Communications System?,” International Affairs (12, 1964), pp. 69–74.Google Scholar

1 Lutz, S. G., Director of Hughes Research Laboratories, Satellite Broadcasting, Address to Institute of Radio Engineers, Chicago (06 19–20, 1961), pp. 1–7.Google Scholar

1 Silberman, Charles A., “The Early Bird that Casts a Big Shadow,” Fortune (02, 1967), pp. 108 ff.Google Scholar

1 Sederberg, Arelo, “Hughes Claims its ‘Standstill’ Satellite Could Save $2 Billion,” Los Angeles Times (03 11, 1965).Google Scholar

1 In Constant Touch (Washington, D.C., Communications Satellite Corporation, 1965), p. 2.Google Scholar

1 Haney, G. Mickey and Thompson, James D., “Communications Satellites,” International Science and Technology (01, 1967), pp. 46–60.Google Scholar

1 The Needs of Education for Utilization of Space Transmission Techniques, edited by Bronson, Vernon (Washington, D.C., The National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 05, 1962).Google Scholar

1 Ibid., pp. 30–31.

1 Gould, Jack “ABC Plans Domestic Satellite to Replace Ground Relay of TV,” The New York Times (04 14, 1965), pp. 1, 23.Google Scholar

1 Fouguer, David, “Domestic TV Satellite System Held Feasible,” The Washington Post (04 13, 1966).Google Scholar

1 “Domestic Communications Satellite Fight Opens: Ford Foundation Offers Plan,” Wall Street Journal (08 2, 1966), pp. 5–8;Google Scholar also “Bundy's, Letter to F.C.C. on a T V Satellite System,” New York Times (08 2, 1966), p. 18.Google Scholar

1 Sheehan, Robert, “A.T.&T.: A Study in Federalism,” Fortune (02, 1965), pp. 143 ff.Google Scholar

1 Gould, Jack, “Where Should TVs Profits Go?”, The New York Times (08 28, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Cf. Report of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Public Television: A Program for Action (New York, 1967), p. 57–58.Google Scholar

1 Frankel, Max, “President Seeks Public TV Agency as Education Aid,” The New York Times (03 1, 1967), pp. 1, 27;Google Scholar also Gould, Jack, “Johnson's Aims for TV,” The New York Times (03 1, 1967), p. 27.Google Scholar

1 Cf. the remarks of Senator Magnuson, Warren G. to the Senate as reported in the Congressional Record, 90th Congress, 1st Session (03 6, 1967), Vol. 113, No. 35, S 3107–3110.Google Scholar

1 Typical of this reaction would be: “Watching Big Brother: ‘Educational’ Television Could Bring 1984 a Wavelength Closer,” Barron's (10 3, 1966), p. 1.Google Scholar

1 Quoted in The New York Times (07 25, 1961), p. 12.Google Scholar

1 Cf. Johnson, Leland L., “The Commercial Uses of Communication Satellites,” California Management Review (Spring, 1963), pp. 55–56.Google Scholar

1 Miller, Barry, “Hughes Proposes TV Broadcast Satelite,” Aviation Week (02 1, 1965), pp. 75–76;Google ScholarUnderhill, Bradford B., “Home T V via Satellite,” Electronics World (05, 1966);Google ScholarBishop, Jerry E., “Tomorrow's T V Engineers Say Shows May be Sent Directly from Satellite to Home,” Wall Street Journal (09 26, 1966), pp. 1, 16.Google ScholarMoulton, E. J., “Satellite Over Africa,” Africa Report (05, 1967), pp. 13–19.Google Scholar

1 Rosenberg, Laurence C., “On Costs and Benefits of a National Television System for India,” The Indian Economic Journal (07,09, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Page Communications Engineers, Inc., , Feasibility Study of Space and Terrestrial Telecommunications in South America, Volume I; Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations (prepared for the Inter American Development Bank, Washington, D.C.: Northrop Corporation, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Senator Javits, Jacob K., Closing the Communication Gap, An Address to the American Chamber of Commerce in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 03 28, 1966.Google Scholar

1 For the resolutions taken by the American heads of state at Punta del Este, cf. “Television, Education and Science Projects Discussed in Punta del Este Plan,” The New York Times (04 14, 1967), p. 17.Google Scholar

1 Dlugatch, Irving, A Lost Cost Communication Satellite Educational System (Santa Monica, California: System Development Corporation, 08 15, 1966).Google Scholar

1 “Military Data Satellite Due for Flight in 1966,” The New York Herald-Tribune (0924, 1964), p. 7.Google Scholar

1 “Satellite May Ruin VC Cover,” The Houston Post (08 11, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Wilson, George C., “Air Force Studying Plan for Satellite to Signal Troops,” The Washington Post (10 4, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Communications Satellites (Washington, D.C., National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1966), p. 16.Google Scholar

1 “Radios in the Sky: NASA Asks Bids on Satellite Study for Direct Broadcasts Into Homes,” Wall Street Journal (11 26, 1965).Google Scholar

1 Clark, Evart, “Applications of Technology Are Said to Lag,” The New York Times (09 16, 1966), p. 22.Google Scholar

1 “Africa Gets Space Picture Over Homemade Gadget,” The Washington Post (03 25, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Lippmann, Walter, Public Opinion (New York, 1965), pp. 3–22.Google Scholar

1 Ibid., pp. 203–206.

1 Lazarsfeld, Paul F. and Merton, Robert K., “Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action,” Mass Communications, edited by Schramm, Wilbur (Urbana, 1949), pp. 459–480.Google Scholar

1 Smythe, Dallas W., Space Satellite Communications and Public Opinion (Urbana, 1949, 1961), mimeographed paper.Google Scholar

1 Cf. the detailed analysis of Hyman Goldin in the Carnegie Commission Report on Educational Television, op, cit.,

1 Lippmann, , op, cit., p. 203.Google Scholar

1 For the spread of America' commercial influence throughout the developing world, cf. Dizard, Wilson P., Television: a World View (Syracuse, 1966);Google ScholarSchiller, Herbert I., “America Rules the Airways,” The Progressive (03, 1966), pp. 26–29.Google Scholar“Television is the Message Down in Rio,” Business Week (06 17, 1967). pp. 86–88;Google Scholar“Reviw of TV Around the World,” Television Age (01 1, 1968);Google Scholar and Dougherty, Philip H., “Advertising: Making International Scene,” The New York Times (02 15, 1968).Google Scholar

1 Gould, Jack, “F.C.C. Takes Hand in COMSAT Dispute on Owning Relay Stations,” The New York Times (04 27, 1965), pp. 8, 9.Google Scholar

1 “COMSAT Asks F.C.C. to Rule in Test Case,” The Washington Post (04 29, 1966).Google Scholar

1 “F.C.C. Authorizes COMSAT to Build New Satellites,” The Washington Post (06 24, 1966), p. D8.Google Scholar

1 In the matter of Authorized Entities and Authorized Users Under the Communications Satellite Act of 1962, Washington, D.C., The Federal Communications Commission, Docket No. 16058 (07 21, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Meyers, Harold B., “The F.C.C.' Expanding, Demanding Universe,” Fortune (06, 1966), p. 151.Google Scholar

1 Clark, Evart, “Propaganda Is Called a Peril of Communications Satellites,” The New York Times (05 5, 1966).Google Scholar

1 Hamilton, Walton, The Politics of Industry (New York, 1957), pp. 54–57.Google Scholar

1 Gainsbrugh, Martin, “Advertising as Investment, Not Cost,” Advertising Age (02 2, 1959), pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

1 Silberman, Charles E. and Parker, Sanford S., “Question Before the Board: Hold Off or Go Ahead? The Crucial Capital Goods Market,” Fortune (09, 1962), p. 264.Google Scholar

1 Cf. “Personalities: David Sarnoff,” Forbes (02 1, 1962), p. 19;Google ScholarRogers, Donald I., “RCA: Tale of Risks,” The New York Herald-Tribune (05 8, 1962), p. 32;Google Scholar cf. the remarks of Stanton, Frank, Television Inquiry Hearings Before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. U.S. Senate, 84th Congress, 2nd Session, 1956 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office), p. 2142;Google ScholarMayer, Martin, “ABC: Portrait of a Network,” Show (10, 1961), pp. 58 ff.;Google ScholarHurley, Neil P., “The Sources of Risk Capital in Television Broadcasting,” Marquette Business Review (Winter, 1963), pp. 32–41;Google Scholar cf. letter of Dingman, Mr. James E., Executive Vice-President of AT&T to Senator Magnuson, op. cit., p. 317.Google Scholar

1 Hickey, Neil, “The F.C.C. Could Run for Six Years on What the Networks are Paying for Football,” TV Guide (02 5–11, 1966), pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

1 “ITT and ABC Merger,” The New Republic (02 25, 1967).Google Scholar

1 Sherrill, Robert G., “ABC & ITT: Marriage in Haste,” The Nation (03 20, 1967), pp. 361–364.Google Scholar

1 Rebuttal, Statement by the Department of Justice Before the Federal Communications Commission, Docket No. 16828 (02 28, 1967).Google Scholar

1 Gould, Jack, “Repercussions of the A.B.C. and I.T.T. Parting,” The New York Times (01 5, 1968), p. 71.Google Scholar

1 Shanahan, Eileen, “Network Warns Merger Inquiry,” The New York Times (04 14, 1967), p. 31.Google Scholar

1 Loory, Stuart H., “Reds Launch a Sputnik Telstar to Link Moscow with Pacific,” The New York Herald-Tribune (04 24, 1965);Google Scholar also Shabad, Theodore, “Moscow Puts Aloft its First ‘COMSAT’; TV Movie is Shown,” The New York Times (04 24, 1965).Google Scholar

1 Johnsen, Katherine, “France Backs UN INTELSAT Control,” Aviation Week Space Technology (02 13, 1967), p. 2.Google Scholar

1 “French Talk of ‘Super’ Communication Satellite,” The Washington Post (02 23, 1967).Google Scholar

1 Hurley, Neil P., “Communications Satellites,” America (08 27, 1966), pp. 204 ff.Google Scholar Also Golouin, Nicholas E., “The Nth Country' Problem in Space Exploration,” The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (12, 1966), pp. 13–18.Google Scholar

1 Johnsen, Katherine, “COMSAT Faces U.S. Overseas Challenge,” Aviation Week Space Technology (03 6, 1967), pp. 165–170;Google ScholarBeecher, William, “NATO Weighs Satellite Communication System,” The New York Times (04 21, 1967).Google Scholar

1 “Switchboards in Space: An Interview with David Sarnoff,” U.S. News World Report (07 5, 1965);Google ScholarBickel, Alexander M., “Antitrust Slowdown?” The New Republic (05 20, 1967), pp. 15–18.Google Scholar

1 Hartley, William D. and Bishop, Jerry, “COMSAT on the Spot,” The Wall Street Journal (10 12, 1967), p. 1.Google Scholar

1 Lazarsfeld, Paul F., “Remarks on Administrative and Critical Communications Research,” Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, Volume 9 (1941).Google Scholar

1 Lippmann, , op, cit., p. 256.Google Scholar

1 Ibid., pp. 229–230.

1 Marks, Leonard H., Director of the United States Information Agency, has spoken eloquently of satellite communications for education, especially in the less economically developed regions. Cf. his address: Communications Satellites: What Rote for Education? Address to the Third European Broadcasting Union, Paris, France (03 20, 1967);Google Scholar also A Worldwide Information Grid, Address to the 43rd Convention of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, Denver, Colorado (11 8, 1967).Google Scholar