The ‘Post-state’ Argument and Its Problems: Lessons from Media Policy Reforms in Latin America

Abstract

For the last quarter century, enthusiasm and fury about globalisation fuelled speculation about the waning of the state. Globalists of various ideological stripes envisioned nothing but its inexorable demise. They were convinced that the myriad forces of globalisation were poised to send states to the museum of Modern Oddities. The ‘modern state’ had no fighting chance against a formidable combination of global forces — capital, technology and civil society. The odds were against states. The state could no longer do what it was supposed to do — perform key functions such as control the economy, address social challenges, foster cultural unity and ensure information sovereignty. In a de-centred world, transformed by globalisation, the state could hardly claim to be a political, economic, social or cultural centre. The decline of the state seemed as inevitable as the passing of seasons.