Leviathan dreams: State and broadcasting in South America

This article examines different forms of state intervention in the history of broadcasting in South America. In contrast to “media imperialism”; positions, it is argued that the analysis of the evolution of broadcasting systems cannot be restricted to the role of international capital. Nor can the development of broadcasting in the region be understood as completely dominated by market mechanisms. On different occasions and for different reasons, domestic actors coalesced around the state to champion government‐run models against private broadcasting. Statist solutions, however, were ineffectual in changing the fundamental dynamics of the systems in place. Moreover, as they were often implemented by authoritarian governments, state models aggravated the problems for the existence of democratic broadcasting. Amid the hegemony of the private model and the globalization of media economies in the region, the discrediting of statist experiences makes it necessary to rethink alternatives to market‐dominated broadcasting.