The Politics of Telecommunications

Mark Thatcher is Lecturer in Public Administration and Public Policy, Department of Government, London School of Economics.

• INTRODUCTION ; 1. National Institutions, Differences, Stability and Change ; 2THE ROOTS OF HISTORY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN BRITAIN AND FRANCE BEFORE 1969 ; 3 TECHNOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC PRESSURES FOR CHANGE IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS FROM THE 1960S TO THE 1990S ; 4 PRESSURES FOR CHANGE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS FROM THE 1960S TO THE 1990S ; PART TWO INSTITUTIONS AND POLICY MAKING 1969-1979 ; 5THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN BRITAIN AND FRANCE 1969-1979: DIVERGENCE, REFORM AND STANDSTILL ; 6 POLICY MAKING IN THE 1970S: CONSTRAINTS IN BRITAIN, BOLDNESS IN FRANCE ; PART THREE INSTITUTIONS AND POLICY MAKING 1980-1996 ; 7 THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS 1980-1997: NATIONAL CHANGE, DIVERGENCE AND DIFFERENCES ; 8THE IMPACTS OF INSTITUTIONAL DIVERGENCE: THE NETWORK OPERATORS IN BRITAIN AND FRANCE DURING THE 1980S ; 9 COMPETITION IN NETWORK OPERATION 1990-1996: DIFFERING NATIONAL PATHS AWAY FROM MONOPOLY ; 10 POLICY MAKING IN A NEW FIELD OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS: ADVANCED NETWORKS AND SERVICES AND CUSTOMER PREMISES EQUIPMENT FROM THE LATE 1970S TO THE MID-1990S ; PART FOUR ECONOMIC OUTCOMES ; 11 ECONOMIC OUTCOMES IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR IN BRITAIN AND FRANCE 1970-1997: CONVERGENCE DESPITE INSTITUTIONAL DIVERGENCE ; PART FIVE CONCLUSIONS ; 12 CONCLUSION: NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, POLICY AND CHANGE

Excellent and rigorously researched study ... Thatcher's penetrating analysis stresses the limitations, as well as the strengths, of the institutionalist approach ... will be of considerable value to comparative political scientists in general and to analysts of public policy and political economy in particular.