Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

INFORMATION AND DEMOCRACY
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training, advice on appropriate dress codes for television appearances and practice
interviews using internal (or consultant-based) video facilities, frequently with
professional media personnel hired as trainers, are becoming routine in the larger
businesses.
Furthermore, Michael Useem (1984) has documented how corporate structures
have resulted in a greater premium than ever being put on what might
be called the informational capabilities of corporations and their leading executives.
Useem demonstrates that there has been a shift this century from ‘family’,
through ‘managerial’, to ‘institutional’ capitalism, by which he means that not only
are advanced economies nowadays dominated by large and impersonal corporations,
but also these are more interconnected than ever before. An important
consequence of this is the creation of an ‘inner circle’ of interlocking directorates
within modern capitalism, an inner sanctum wherein there is shared a ‘consciousness
of a generalised corporate outlook’ (Useem, 1984, p. 5) that supersedes
individual company interests. In Useem’s estimation this is a reason for two especially
significant developments. The first is the ‘political mobilisation of business’
(p. 150) during and unceasingly since the 1970s. Interlocks between corporations
have created a basis which allows the corporate sector to participate effectively
in politics on a broadly consensual basis, to respond, for instance, to what may
be regarded as excessively high tax levels, to too much power vested in labour
movements, or to legislation which hinders enterprise and initiative. In the round
the ‘political mobilisation of business’ is testament to the need for modern businesses
to manage not just their internal affairs, but also the external environment
that impinges on enterprise. The growth of the business lobby – with its opinion
leaders, significant contacts, business round tables and constant stream of press
releases and briefing documents – and increased support for pro-business political
parties, free enterprise think tanks and vigorous backing to bodies such as
the CBI, is evidence of a heightened awareness and commitment on the part
of the corporate sector.
The second, and related, feature concerns the characteristics of today’s
corporate leaders. Increasingly they are chosen with an eye to their communicative
skills. What Michael Useem (1985) terms the rise of the ‘political
manager’ puts great onus on the capacity of business leaders to chart their way
through complex political, economic and social environments and to think strategically
about the corporate circumstances. An essential requisite of such talents
is communicative ability, one able to persuade outside (and frequently inside)
parties of the rectitude of company policy and practices. To Useem this emergence
indicates ‘the most visible sign of a more pervasive change in the attitude
of business [in which] the public affairs function [has] moved to the fore’ (1985,
p. 24). With these traits, aggrandised, interconnected, conscious of generalised
interests, and led by able communicators, the corporate interests inevitably
exercise a powerful influence on the contemporary information environment.
The second feature of business involvement in the information domain
returns us to their more mainstream activities. Again, it is during the key interwar
period that we can discern developments that have profoundly affected
today’s circumstances. In brief, corporate growth led to the supplement of concern
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