The Legal Process and Political Economy of Telecommunications Reform

39 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2013

See all articles by James Ming Chen

James Ming Chen

Michigan State University - College of Law

Date Written: 1997

Abstract

American telecommunications law as regulatory phoenix appears to smolder in repeating cycles of reform, only to rise again from its ashes. From the heyday of public utility law's regulatory compact, through "mid-life" phases oj crisis and reform, to the mix of triumph and letdown that is the Telecommunications Act of 1996, telecommunications law has passed through four distinct "ages." In each age, a dominant institution arose to address the perceived economic concerns of the day, only to run headlong against legal and political limits on its effectiveness.

During the Age of Accommodation, which survived the passage of the Communications Act of 1934, state public utility commissions nurtured the Bell monopoly in its infancy. The Federal Communications Commission's efforts to deregulate equipment manufacturing and long distance defined an Age of Anxiety in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. During the twelve-year Age of Antitrust, the Modified Final Judgment attempted to confine the divested Bell companies to the last of their monopolies, local carnage. Today's Age of Anticipation, heralded by the 1996 Act, boasts numerous strategies for enhancing entry and competition throughout the industry.

Telecommunications reform has been shaped by client politics, institutional stagnation and reform, impeifect economic competition, and technological innovation. The intrinsic political economy of telecommunications has defeated efforts to alter "legal process" through institutional revitalization and realigument. Redistributive debates over universal service and residential subsidies linger despite drastic technological change and legal evolution, while obvious solutions (such as immediate long-distance deregulation) languish. Far from converging into a single coherent body of policy, telecommunications law will continue to reflect longstanding tensions within the legal process and political economy of American telephony.

Suggested Citation

Chen, James Ming, The Legal Process and Political Economy of Telecommunications Reform (1997). Columbia Law Review, Vol. 97, pp. 835-873, 1997, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2255106

James Ming Chen (Contact Author)

Michigan State University - College of Law ( email )

318 Law College Building
East Lansing, MI 48824-1300
United States

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