The Prime Minister-Media Nexus

This book offers a systematic inquiry into how, why, and with what consequences media affects governments and the standing of prime ministers. It aims at an understanding of how media has caused institutional effects in government, as well as at advancing a unified theory of government communication. The author develops a logic of centralization and applies it to one case, Sweden. Government communication has been institutionalized, tightened and centralized with the prime minister and has changed irreversibly. Analysis of how the government communication system has evolved, mainly in its institutional structures, suggests that the shift to centralization arose more out of necessity than choice. For prime ministers most of this is about finding ways to ensure that the entire government respond to media uniformly. As governments face a set of functional demands from media, different kinds of media, uniformity has been a paramount objective. Nevertheless, thisdevelopment involves shifting dynamics of intra-executive relations and a shift of power away from ministries to the prime minister's office; the apex of political power. The prime minister has been empowered at the expense of ministers through the concentration of power and resources to the executive centre. That is partly because of media, which reinforces political hierarchies. That and the centralized control of government news in turn raises further questions about democratic governance and the nature of modern-day governing.

Argues that media generates functional pressures consolidating a trend of centralization toward the executive centre Advances research on the presidentialization of politics and on government communication Application to the Swedish case focusing on the office of prime minister and the government communication system

Auteur

Karl Magnus Johansson is Affiliate Professor of Political Science at Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. Previously, he was Professor at Södertörn University and Part-Time Professor at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.

Contenu

1. Introductory Framework.- 2. Theoretical Explanations of Prime Minister Empowerment: Toward a Unified Theory of Centralization.- 3. The Swedish Experience: Reinforcement of Central Government and the Significance of Media.- 4. Conclusions.