...development are working themselves out in the third world at a slower rate of change. Computers and Democracy Freedom is fostered when the means of communication...communication are concentrated, monopolized, and scarce. Ithiel De Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom As a great social leveler, information technology ranks...

...communications industry relative to the preservation of free speech, Ithiel de Sola Pool observed that "freedom is fostered when the means of communication...available, as are printing presses or microcomputers" (Ithiel de Sola Pool, 1983:5). A principal thesis of this argument is that central control and monopoly...

...subordinates and transmit directives to them. The political scientist Ithiel de Sola Pool puts it this way: "Freedom is fostered when the means of communication...concentrated, monopolized, and scarce, as are great networks." Most technologies — although tending in one direction or the other — can fit into either...

...de Sola Pool established a framework for this debate about communication technologies and democracy: "Freedom is fostered when the means of communication...concentrated, monopolized, and scarce, as are great networks."22 At a time when the mainframe computer was seen as an emblem of bureaucratic control, Pool...

...speech, I would argue, fits a pattern that is sometimes described as "soft technological determinism." Freedom is fostered when the means of communication...concentrated, monopolized, and scarce, as are great networks. But the relationship between technology and institutions is not simple or unidirectional,...

...fostered when the means of comrmanication are dispersed, decentralized, and easily available . . . Central control is more likely when the means of communication are concentrated, monopolized, and scarce."8 This is a critical point, since communication satellites and cable systems are both classic...