The Politics of a Paradigm Shift: Telecommunications Regulation and the Communications Revolution

Abstract As a result of the convergence of telecommunications and mass communications technologies, American policymakers face a series of criti-cal decisions about infrastructural investment, technical architecture, and regulation that will determine the character of the U.S. electronic industrial base. This article develops the argument that the current policy trajectory will likely lead to some awkward choices. Powerful vested interests have distorted the communications policy process. Regulatory inertia has come to tie the hands of the regulators as well as the hands of industry leaders. We argue that there exists a critical opportunity for independent communi-cations policy research to make a difference and to anticipate and facilitate a paradigm shift in telecommunications regulation