,.

1 \

Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia

Communicatioll ill World Order Trallsformation

Ronald

J.

Deibert

SEP 1 9"999

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PROPERTY OF
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NE\\' DIRECTIONS IN WORLD POLITICS

Copyright Cl 1997 Cohnnhia Univcrsily Press

'0/111 Gerard HlIggie. Gelleral Editor

All rights reserved

Photo Credits:
John Cerard Ruggie. editor, The Antinomies of Interdependence: National Wel(cl "
and the Intematiollal Di\'i,~ion of I,,1Imr 19K 3

Figure 3, page 172. conrtesy of Aeriallmagcs, Inc,

Figurc 5, pagc 190. courlcsy of Visual Artisls allll Gallcrics AWlcialion, Inc.

Da\id B, Yoffie. POIrer and PmtectiorlislII: Strategies of the New!.1' Illdl/.~triali;:ij ~

COIllltril's JlJS 3

l.ihrary of Congrcss Calaloging-in-Puhlication Data

Dcihcrt. Ronald

Paul

J,

Parchmcnt. prinlin~. amI hypcrmcdia : commnnication in world ordcr lramformalinn

Ronald

I.

'1;1\ lor.

The l,i1llits of European Illtegratir)// IlJlB

\\'illial1l I I. Beckcr amI Sal1luel F. \\'ells, Jr., editors, Economics alld World
,\11 A~,~e.mne"t of "I1Ieril'lln Dil,/omacy Sillce 17R!) 19K 3

Deibert

John Ra\l.'nhill, Co/lel'/;"e Clienteli.ml: The Imile Cr)//I'entirms and North-South Ii

lations 191);-

p. cll1 - (Ncw dircctions in world polilics)

lnclndcs bibliographical refcrcnccs and index

Rohert Pollard, EcrJIwmic Seellrih' and tire OrigillS of the Cold \\;i" IlJK5

ISBN: 0-231-10712-9Icl: alk. paper)

\\'illiam ;\1cJ'\ eil, American ,\lolle)' alld the Weimar Republic 191)6

Rohert 0, Keohane, etlilor. Neorca!ism alld Its (;ritic,~ I\)!\()

0-231-107n-7Iphk,)

J, .\nn Tickner. SelfRe/iallce \hsus Power Po/itic,~: The American and Illdian Exp, ~

riellces ill Hllilding !':otion States 191)7

I. COllnnnnication - Tcchnological inno\'alion< - Hislory

2, Civilization - I liston',

Rohert \\', CO'I:. Proelue/irJ/l. Power, and World Order: ~'ocicill'()Tces in tire l\1akinfj , I
His/on' 19K','"

'- Comnlllnicalion and cnltmc - Hislory.

P%.T42 D45

1998 302.2 - 21 97015336

'X:

POlI'l

Jdfrc\' II<lrrod, POll'cr. Prodlle/ir)//, and the [Inproteded \Vorker 19K7

CII'

Da\id R. :'vlares. Pelletrating Intematiollol Markets: Theoretical Considerations

CaschoulH! cditions of Colnmbia Universi~' Prcss books arc printcd on pcrlllancnt amI

</1; :

\lexicC/lI Agriclll/Ilre 191)7

John :\, C. C01l\heare. Trade Wars: 'l1le Theor)' and Practice of Intematir!11al CO"
men'ial Rim/n' 19K7
Kenneth A Rodman. Sane/it)' \'ersIlS Sovereignt),: U.s, Polic), Toward the Natir!11a:
i:::atioll of A'atural Resource Imestmellts in the Third World \988
Constance C. Anthony. 1\lechani:::atioll and Maize: Agriculture and the Politics,
Technology Tran~fer in East Africa 1988
Joe k :\. Finla\"Son and l\ lark \\'. Zacher, II lanaging In tematirJIwl Markets: Developill
COlllltries alld the Comlllodity Trade Regime 1988
Pcler i\l. Ilaas. Sa ring the MediterrallecII/: 'lhe Politics o(1nteTilatir!1101 Envirolllnell/,./
Cooperat irm 1990
Stephen C. Neff, Friellds But No Allies: Economic Liberalism and the Law ofNatirJ/l1

"mahle acid-frcc paper.

Printcd in Ihe Unitcd Slalcs of Amcrica
cl0987654321
p 109 8765 4 3 2 I

1990
Emanuel Adler and Be\'erh Crawford. Progress ill Poshl'ar International Relations
1991
J. ,~\nn Tickner. Gellder in Illtematiollal Relations: Feminist Perspecti,'es on Achieving
Global Sewrit)' 1992

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PROPERTY OF
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john Gerard Ruggie, editor, Multilateralislll Matters: TIre Tlreory and Praxis of an
'IIStitlltion,,1 Fonll 199~
R;my BlIZan, Charles jones, and Richard Little, Tire Logic of Anarel,)': Neorealism

to Strul'lllwl

Contents

f{eali~'m 199~

n, l.ipsdllltl. and Ken Conca, editors, Tire State and Social POIfer in Global
nl'irOlllllelltal Politics 1993
J);l\id A. Haldwill, editor, NeorecJ1ism and Neo/iheralism: TI,e Contemporary' Dehate
Ronnie

199~
1(;IlCIl

Litfill, O;:one Discollrses: Sciellce cHId l'o/itics ill G/ohal Enrironmental Co

o/,a"tioll 1994

PROPERTY OF
RYERSON POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

Ronnie 0, Lipschutz, editor, On Security 1995

Peter j, Kat7enskin, editor, The Cllltllre of NcltiOlwl Secllnt)': Nonlls Cllld 'dentit) in

350 VICTORIA ST., TORONTO, ONT. M5B 2K3

\\'orld Politics 1966

Edward 0, rvlansfield and Iiden V. l\filner, editors, Tire Political Economy of Ik

giollcJ1ism 1997
Robert Latham, !\fodemi!)', Securil)', alld tire !\faking of Postwar International Order
1997

Preface

IX

111troductiol/

I.

~ lediulll Theory, Ecological Holism, and the Study of World

Order Transformation

'7

Part 1. Printing and the Medieval to Modern

World Order Transformation
2.

From the Parchment Codex to the Printing Press: The Sacred

Word and the Rise and Fall of r-..ledieval Theocracy

47

3 Print and the r-..ledie\al to r-..lodern World Order Transformation:

Distribntional Changes
4

67

Print and the r-..Icdievalto Modern World Order Transformation:

Changes to Social Epistemology

94

Part 2. Hypermedia and the Modern to

Postmodern World Order Transformation
).

Transformation in the r-..lode of Communication: The Emergence

of the H~'pennedia Environment

113

viII

CONIENIS

6'lI-!iR~rmediaand the Modern to Postmodern World Order

~formation: Distributional Changes

137

Hyp'tmnedia and the Modern to Postmodern World Ordcr

PI
,'t~~sformation: Changes to Social EpistenlOlogr
177
,V"I>

Preface

<

.8/ Conclusion

202

~otes

219

Bibliography
Index

285

315

The main contcntion of this hook is that the landscape (

world politics is undergoing rapid and fundamental transformations relate
to the alkcnt of digital-electronic tclcconnnunications _ what I call the h,
permedia em'iromnent - and that the most useful way to fathom thcse tran
formations is through the lens of "medium theory." Admittcdly, the picllll
that emcrges through this JCIlS \\'ill bc discomforting to m<1ny: postmodcl
world order is a placc inhabited br de-tcrritorialized COnlllJIIllities, fral'
mCllted idcntitics, transllatiollal corporations, and cybcrspalial Aows of [I
1I:1I1ce, It is a world in which brokers, cnlli,st.s, amI klwlif, arc as IIInch i!
promincnt relicf as CilnadiallS, Poles, and Kuwaitis, It is, paradoxically, .
world made up of plmal worlds, multiple realities and irrealities _ digita
artifacts stitched together in a web of spectacles, cineplexes, alld Scgas. No
a single "global \'illage," alld e\'en less a system of territorially-distinctnatioll
states, postmoclerJI world ordcr is, rather, a pastiche of lJIultiple and overlap
ping authoritics - a quasi-feudal, "multiccntric" system,
"l\ledium theory" was first articulated by Harold Innis and then broughi
to a much wider <ludicncc by l\lar.slraIlMcLuhan, both of whom wcre Ca.
nadian scholars who taught at the Uni\'ersity of laronto, where I now have
the good fortune to teach, The central proposition of medium theory is thai
changing modes of communication ha\'e effects on the trajectory of social
e\olution aIHltlre values and beliefs of societies, l\ledium thcory traces thcse
effects to the unique properties of different modes of cOllllllunication _ to

///
1/1
/4/

1\ Icdiulll Theory, Ecological Holism,

and the Stud\', of \Vorld

Order Transformation

')

analys~

pO\'erh' of the many existing, mostly speculati\"c

of the "informatioll remllll;oll" r;..Cllls 'he illhe/ellt difflCllltfcs 01 dsscssing------=>
s\\'e;!Jing changcs as thcy lI/1fold Withont the confidcnce of hindsight, and
\\'ith no God's-eyc \'antage point, thcory becomcs an essential, though nec
ess<Hil~' context-bollnd. tool by which to bring order to the apparent chaos
that Roods from abrupt ruptures in social and political institutions. Given
the lack of attention International Relations scholarship traditionally dc\"otes
to conllllunications, my first stcps in this dircction mllst be across disciplinary
boundarics-a potentially dangcrous expedition, though one that also offcrs
the prospect of shaking loose dogmatic assumptions ri\-cted in placc by pro
longed amI artificial disciplinary closure. J
At the same time, it is important to recognize that approaches lifted from
other fields arc likely to suffcr their own peculiar deficiencies. We should
be careful to a\"oid cross-disciplinary hcro.worship for its own sakc. At the
very least, it is unlikely that any theory de\'ised within a particular discursive
field \\ith its own set of problems can be transp1<Jnted wholesale to another
without significant modification, To accommodate my own specific prob
lemalique, the rudimentary insights of Innis, f\IcLuhan, and other medium
theorists \\'ill be embedded in an e\'Olutionary approach called "ecological
holism." Although the label is new, the approach itself actually synthesizes
and expounds \\hat is already implicit in the work of many medium theo
rists-that is, an open-ended, Ilollleductionist, thoroughly historicist view of

I~

1;-" I ROllllC I ION

IUllwn cxistence that emphasizes contingcncy over continuity both in terms

,f the lraiedor~' of social emlntion ;\ntl tl,e natme amI character of hmnan
Icings. As will be made clear below, while this approach differs in significant
\'ays from mainstream International Relations theorizing, it does find reso
,;\lICC in the work of at least one prominent theorist-namely. John Rug
,ic-and has important commonalities with others as well.
111 this ck,ptcr, I bcgiu with an overview of thc extant literaturc on com
iIlmications within the International Relations field. As will be re\'ealed
'e1ow, there is a dearth of scholarship that takes communications as its cen
ral foclls. l'vlorcovcr, what little exists is cithcr Aawcd in significant ways. or
i improperly designed for my central task: an examination of the rclation
hip between changes in communication techllologies and social and pol it
:al change at a \\'orld-order level. I then outline the central tenets of me
limll theory. and offer a profile of some of the main contributors to this
pproach, including the issues to which they ha\'e applied their insights.
fsing the \'arious criticisms of medium theory as a backdrop, I then put
:mvard a substantial elaboration and modification of medium theory, tai
1ring it to the specific concerns of the study, and situating it more clearly
,'ithin the International Relations field. The analytical scheme uscd to or
,anize the research in the ensuing chapters will emerge from the 11l0difi
ations made to medium theory.

International Relations Theory and Communications

There is no distinct "school" or "paradigm" of communications within
he field of International Relations. In fact, there are few International Re
ltions theorists of communication at all (the one important exception being
~arl Deutsch). Individual theorists may allude to commllnication or infor
nation in their studies, but rare are thc cases where an o\'ertly commlllli
ations approach is 'Hlopted. Although thc communications/International
~elations nexus remains underdeveloped, some distinet themes or issue
reas can be identified where the interaction between the two is gh'en more
han passing notice.
To the limited extent International Relations theorists ha\'e dealt with
ommunications explicitly, the focus has primarily been on cOlltellt to the
xclusion of technology-the im'erse of the theoretical perspecti\'e to be

Medium Theory

19

emplo~'ed here. For example. considerable work has been done on propa
~antla

as ;111 instrlllllcnt of forcil;n polin'. noting thc way a slalc willinanip

nlate messages to garner international support or undermine foes. Z Other
studies working in the content vein ha\'e focused on media reprcsentations,
or thc "framing" of inlcrnational cvcnts, and thc way thcse rcprcsentations
ma\' inAuence domestic opinion and thus foreign policy outcomes,l Thcse
particular approachcs werc COll1ll10n during and aftcr thc Vietnam War,
when the novelty of "the first teledsed war" captured the attention of many
scholars,4 An important subset of this approach includes the many studics
that examine the relationship between content and situation. In this gronp
wc would find stndics on comnlllnication during eriscs;~ intercultural COIII
munications;6 communications in negotiations and bargaining;' and war
time and/or diplomatic communications. R
A further subset of thc content-bascd approachcs includcs thosc that
deal with cOlltrol. Work in this area typically examines the way ownership
of mcdia crcates an idcological bias that circllJllscrihcs and shapcs dcbate
to further the interests of capital or the state. 9 For example, the Gramscian
school of International Relations theory emphasizes the relationship be
twccn control O\'er mcdia alld cultural hegemony by transnational elitcs. 1lI
Another common focus of control-based approachcs is on how Aows of
information deepen and solidify structures of dependency between the
information-rich North and thc information-poor South. 11 Policy proposals
designed to rectify this imbalance, such as that for a New World Infor
mation Order, were a direct outgrowth of the conclusions reached by these
theorists. I: Control-based studics thus tend to emphasize the way com
munication Aows threaten "cultural sovereignty" or state autonomy while
extending cultural imperialism. ll Although the focus of these analyses is
on control of the medium, the intent is to show how such control deter
mines content. which is the 1I1timate concern. From this perspective, new
communication technologics are important insofar as thcy cnhancc thc
efficicnc\' and scopc of such control, and hence the potcntial penetration
of hcgcmonic idcologics. But they are ultimately sccn as sllbsidiary vari
ables within an O\'erarching global-capitalist mode of production, rather
than as transformati\'e in their own right.
Not all of the work on communications by International Relations the
orists deals exclusively with content; the pioneering work by Karl Deutsch
on communications {lows is an important exception. H Deutsch, who is prob
ably the figure most identifiable with the communicationsllnternational Re

20

Medium Theory

IYIRODUCTION

lations nexus, constructed a formidable and imlo\'ative body of work unique

for the central role he assigned to cOlllllllmicative interaction in the expla
nation of political behavior. When opening any of Deutsch's many works,
the reader cannot help but be struck by a sharp contrast: while Deutsch
crafts del;ant historical interpretatiollS, rich in detail, as hackdrops for his
anal~'sis, when his attention turns to explanation, IlOwe\'er, an O\'erarching,
almost obsessive compulsion for statistical rigor predominates. Ilis concern
for the quantitative is so strong that Deutsch's formal analysis of comllluni
cation is thus restricted to the one part of the comnlllnication process that
Gm bc measured: Aow. For Deutsch, communication flows determine the
level of national and international integration. Concentrated e1usters ofcom
nllmication palterns- measured in terms of the density and Aow of postal
or telephone exchanges, for example-distinguish separate communities.
The unevenness of this distribution helps explain why nationalism is so
prevalent in world politics. The Aip side of this equation -and the expla
nation for integration, according to Deutsch - is that the density of the Aow
determines the scope of the community. As Aows increase, parochialism
dissolves.
Deutsch's work is perhaps best situated as one important part of the mod
ernization genre of scholarship that Aourished among political scientists,
development theorists, and sociologists between 1950 and 1980. 1; These
theorists acknowledged that the properties of media were important, but only
along one narrow dimension: the extent to which they enhanced the Aow
or efficicncy of conmlllllications. Such flows were seen as the tools by which
local identities llIight be dissolved and then displaceJ by a more solidified,
national identity as part of a more general.state-building project. Hence,
increased literacy among a population was seen as a key to general political
development, as was the creation and maintenance of a centralized "mass
media~ system. In focusing on the potential development of a pluralistic
security cOlmllllllity in Europe and elsewhere, Deutsch and his colleagues
were simply extending this modernization paradigm beyond national bor
Jers.
The main problem with Deutsch's analysis is that it adopted a nai\'e view
of the assimilative tendencies of increased communication. Extrapolating
from Deutsch's hypotheses, one would expect a single community of hu
manity as comlllllllication becomes more dense, from tribes to nations to
regions to supranations. Yet the opposite is as often the case. Increased com
lIlunication Aow does not, by necessity, lead to common identities. 16 Flow

21

b~' itself tells us lillIe about the nature of the interaction. In other words,

incrcased intercultmal eonnllllllication can casily lead to hostile backlasllcs

rather than to seducti\"e integration. Although students of Deutsch continued
his approach into the 1970s and beyond, the utility of a purely quantitative
,Inah-sis of conllllllllication Aows is limitcd. 17
As in the field of comnlllllications proper, the overwhelming majority of
studies on international relations and comllltmications focus 011 sOllie aspect
of message content. In thesc studies, thc spccific message bcing transmiltcd
is thought to be the important variable; changes in the medium through
which the message is imparted are abstracted from the analysis. Those that
do not deal exclusivcly with cOlltellt focus instead on conmllmications (lows,
as exemplified in the work of Karl Deutsch. In hoth of thesc cases, Ihc
mediulll itself is \'iewed as neutral and imisible. Changes in the technology
of comlllllllication arc also ignored.

1'vlediuITI Theory
I\ledium theory Ail'S this abstraction so to speak, fo('ming cxclllsively on
th~ intrillsic properties of the rTl~~Ii!!1ll.itseJf. Most important from this per
specti\'e is the way large-scale changes in modes o(communicationshape

aRd e~l1Shdin bcha\ior;rmt!t~.fighrm-oepCfl1tcnror'Trc~gecQ.lili:Dt::SlTTd-"

111 domg so help to restructure social and politi<;<lLinsHtutions. According to
this perspective, media arc not simply neutral channels for conveying 111 for
mahon bet\\"eell1\\~lnorCell\lrOnmenrs.-mltarerafhcfenvirOlllftCTlts
ill
--.a.o.d-af: t"ellisel\"es.l~ 10 put it si~npl)~~-ed~lll theorYh~fdsthat cOlnmun i
cation "is a sphere where the technology involved may have an immense
significance for the society in which it occurs, and perhaps radically affect
the concurrent forms of social and economic organization."IQ Unlike
content-based analyses of communications, medium theory is necessarily
historical in its approach, contrasting different media environments across
time, and tracing changes in the technology of communication for their
effects on the evolution of social and political order. 211
Although medium theory is associated primarily with twentieth-century
scholarship, many of its core propositions can be unearthed in e1assic texts
dating back to ancient Greece. In the Phaedrus and the Seventh Letter, Plato
has Socrates raise strong objections to the newly emerging wrillen form,
arguing that it destroys memory and weakens the mind, even though, ironi

>

22

INTRODUCTION

Illy, Plato's own analytic epistemology was strongly conditioned by the ef

Tts of writing on mental processes, as Eric Ilavelock, \Valter Ong, and
rnst Cell ncr have argued. ZI r\loral injunctions against the expression of
leas in specific media can be found in the Old 'Iestament, where the Sec
lid Conmundmcnt prohibits the iconographic depiction of CodY In the
,ssa." 011 the Origirr of umglJages, Rousseau takes up a common theme in
lediunl theol),-the transition from primitive orality to writing-arguing
la! wriling transforms the meaning of words and diminishes their \'itality
" suppressing dialects: "The more a people learn to read. the more are its
laleets obliterated,"" \Vhat each of these perspeeti\'Cs shares is the central
roposition of medium theory: that the medium of eomnllmieation- far
om being an empty vessel or transparent ehannel- has a significant inAu
ICC 011 the nature and content of human communication,
Probably the most famous (or infamous, depending on specific \'iew
Jints) practitioner of medium theory is Marshall McLuhan, as one of his
ell-known aphorisms. "the mediulll is the message" allests. In a series of
ighly publicized books written during the 1960s. l\IcLuhan brought atten
'In to the central principles of medium theory. mostly through his idiosyn
atie style of writing, which was peppered with one-line aphorisms and gross
'neralizalions that became catch-phrases of the decade, H As Lapham notes,
;eldom in living memory had so obscure a scholar descended so abruptly
z
1111 so remote a garret into the center ring of celebrity circus: ' Indeed,
\\' scholars can rival MeLuhan for achieving such popular notoriety-a
;e McLuhan himself seemed to relish as proof of his own proelamations.
ilpc;tring in \\loody Allen films and popular television shows. and professing
, speak in the disconnected, pastiche mode of the "electronic age: l\1c
uhan saw his role in therapeutic terms: he was to be the oracle of a new
orld on the \'erge of being born. Not surprisingly. the self-imposed trans
'rmation from bookish literary professor to postmodern electronic guru
ienated many still ensconced in the tombs of frpogTdphica, In an ironic
:ist of his theorizing. McLuhan's meteoric rise ma~' ha\'e had the unfor
mate consequence of obscuring the message beneath the messenger.
Clothed in the "mosaic" form of argumentation l\IcLuhan preferred
mosaic" in contrast to the linear-style of reasoning which l\IcLuhan be
eved to be a product of the Age of Typography), t\IcLuhan's message took
; its starting point some of the more basic themes of medium theol)', re
ea\'ing them into electronic age prophecy, Like other medium theorists,
IcLuhan believed that changes in modes of communication ha\'e impor-

Medium Tileory

23

tant consequenccs for society-that there are deep. qualitative differenccs

betwcen one comllllmic;ltions modc and another, differenccs that arc in
turn reRected in the nature of the communications epoch. For McLnhan,
history can be di\'ided into four snch comlllunications epochs, each of which
corresponds to the dominant mode of comllllmicalion of the time: oral,
writing. printing. and electronic. l\IcLuhan's nnique contribution was thc
argument that in each of these communications epochs, different media aet
as e:den.simlS of the human senscs with consequences for hoth cognition and
social organization, For example. "oral societics" live primarily in an "car
culture.- while writing, amI to a greatcr cxtent print, makes the sense of sight
dominant. Following l\IcLuhan's sensory classification, the electronic re\,
olution returns ns to the world of primitive orality, to villagc-like ell<:ounters,
but now on a global scale: hence, "the global village."zh
One of the morc popnlar. but confusing aspccts of McLuhan's analysis
is his binan' distinction between "hot" and "coo)" media. z7 "Hot" media
extcnd a single sense in high definition; "cool" media arc low in definition.
requiring audience participation. For l\IcLuhan, examples of the former
include print. radio, and film. while examples of the latter would inclnde
colloquial specch, telephonc. and television,z~ Though clearly the distinc
tion is debatable (by most accounts, print is a less passive medium than
tele\'ision in terms of audience participation) like many of McLnhan's
"prohes" it had thc unfortnnate conscquence of dirccting deh<lte about me
dium theory awa~' from its core propositions to l\IcLuhan's morc spcctacnlar
but incidental contributions. "l\IcLuhanesque" slogans-such as "the elec
tric light is purc information" or "c1ectric circuitry is Oricntalil',ing thc
West" - became so associated with medium theory that by the time of Mc
Luhan's death in 1980 few outside of the communications field were aware
of the approacll.~Q
Although he was clearly the most famous, McLuhan was merely one
among a Illllllber of other scholars working along IIIcdium theory Iincs in
the 1950s and I960s, The inlcraction among these thcorists was strong.
t\lan~' of them met regularly at the University of 'Ioronto-constituting an
informal group no\\' referred to as the "Toronto School of Communiea
tions."JO Generally considered the founder of this "school" was the Canadian
economic historian Harold Adam Innis,J1 Innis had established himself as
an expert on trade in Canadian staple resources before turning to the history
of communications. JZ t\IcLuhan's analysis \\'as significantly inAuenced by
Innis's approach -so much so, in fact. that t\IcLuhan had once described

2-+

I NTHOIHICTI ON

his own work as merely a "footnotc" to Innis's scholarship. Although both

shared a notoriously densc aud complex writing style, lunis's work was morc
cOIl\"Cntional in acadcmic terms. Fmthcrmore, Innis ami I\IcLnhan oper
ated at diffcrcut be1s of analysis." While I\IcLuhan directed most of his
('OUCCIIIS to thc cffcct of mcdia on scmory organization and thought, Innis
conccutratcd primarily on largc-scalc social organization and cultme, or, to
cite onc of hmis's more famous titles, on Empire a/l(l CommllnicatiOlls. H
Ilc~ l'f outlines the ccntral thcmcs iu Innis's mcdium thcory:
History is perceived as a series of cpochs separated by discontinuity.
F;tch is distinguishcd by dominant forms of mcdia that absorb, rcc
ord, and transform information into systems of knowledge conso
JJ;lnt with thc institutional power structme appropriatc to the society
iu qucstiou. The interaction betwecn media form and social reality
crcates various biases, which strongly affect the society's cultmal
oricntatiou and valucs."
Two prominent aspects of Innis's work are his views on space/time biases
of differcnt modcs of communication. and on monopolies of knowlcdge.
Innis argued that different media often exhibit an inherent bias toward either
timc or spacc, and that thcse biases are rcRectcd in the character of ci\'ili
zations. Dmable media that are difficnlt to transport-such as stone, clay,
or parchmcnt-have a time-bias; thesc societies tcnd to be tradition-oricnted,
giving cmphasis to custom and continuity O\'er changc, and with a strong
attachmcnt to thc sacred. Fmthermorc, time-biased ci\j)izations oftcn lead
to hicrarchical social orders with elite groups; such as Egyptian high priests
or thc medieval Catholic clergy. Space-biased media, such as papyrus or
papcr, arc lighter amI more portablc and tend to support cxpansionist em
pires characterized by large administrative apparatuses and secular institu
tions. Using a form of dialectical analysis, Innis argucd that both types of
ci\'ili7;ltions ha\'e a tcudency over time to ossify into rigid and uIHcsponsi\'c
regimes. A reaction occms at the fringes of society, where marginalized
groups take advantage of new technologies of communication, which in turn
results in the ascendancy of a new order.
Clearly, Innis was very much a part of the early-twentieth-century tradi
tion of civi[izationa[ analysis, associated with Oswald Spengler, Arnold Toyn
bee, and Pitrim Sorokin. 36 As with these theorists, Innis's work has been
criticized for a kind of cyclical determinism, whereby history is viewed as

Medium Theory

25

having a master logic that mauifests itself in thc uncnding risc amI fall of
civilizatious, Certainly onc could takc a "stroug" reading of, for example, his
space/time bias categorics and scc in them a kind of reductionism at work.
Howe\'cr, a morc gcncrous rcading of Innis's work would highlight his cm
phasis on social and historical contcxt, on thc way different mcdia have
pote/ltialitie,~ for control according to thc way thcy arc cmploycd in diffcrcnl
circumstanccs. For lunis, thc cmphasis is on the interaction betwcen this
social context a11<1 medium form, ralher than on thc modc of couulllmica
tion in abstraction: "A medium of communication has an important influ
encc on thc disscmination of knowledgc over space and over timc amI it
bccomcs ncccssary to sludy ils characteristics in ordcr to appraisc ils influ
ence in its cllltural setting:'F From this reading, Innis's space/time biascs arc
seeu morc as shorthaud dcsignates for the constraints imposcd on ccrtain
typcs of communications by particular mcdia, rather than programmatic
statements on the nature of communications itself. Above all, Innis was
conccmcd with undcrstauding ci\'ilizationaltransformation through thc JCIlS
of changing medium technology-a hithcrto novel focus that required sig
nificant conceptual innovation to alcrt readers that communication mcdia
arc not mcrc cmply \'cssels.
A~ noted in my introduction, medium theory did not generate a widc
sprcad acadcmic following initially, possibly as a result of its introduction by
Innis and I\IcLuhan, Innis's rclatively carly dcath forecloscd thc possibility
of his complcting the morc comprchensivc projcct suggcsted by his two
preliminary works, Empire and COlllmunications and The Bias of Commu
/Iicatiom, A~ a consequcncc, hc is known mostly through sccoml-hand in
terpretations. In the case of I\IcLuhan, his idiosyncratic style probably did
more to obscure the theoretical basis of his work. Quite intentionally, Mc
Luhan chose to ignore the social scicnce conventions of thc day amI snffcrcd
a predictably dismissh'e response from academia. However, his "mosaic"
stylc of writing may be morc resonant with contemporary postmodern au
diences as c\'idcnced by the I\IcLuhancsque renaissance that appcars to bc
gaining momentum.l~
Nonetheless. mediulTl theory has proved to be a useful tool for a wide
\'ariety of scholars working in different issue-areas, many of whom offer a
more cOll\'entional academic style of analysis than either of the two. A con
temporary of Innis and I\IcLuhan and a member of the informal ''Toronto
SchooL" classicist Eric Ha\'elock has studied the transition to alphabetic
literacy in ancient Greece, analyzing its impact on classical epistemology.39

INTROlJlJCTIO!'l

In a similar \'Cin, social anthropologists Jack Coody and Ian Watt ha\'e stud
ied the transition from primitive orality to writing for its impact 011 both
cognition and social organization, as has Walter Gng from a more general
perspeeti\'e,"o II istorian Elizabeth Eisenstein has undertaken an extensivel~'
documented analysis of the cultmal and scientific changes ;lSSociated with
the shift from script to print in medie\'al Europe.'" And though less often
associated with the formal approach, many of the central propositions of
medium theory can be found in the work of cnltmal anthropologists like
I.ewis I\lnmford and Ernst Gellner, who emphasize the role of technology
in social changeY While most of these theorists touch on large-scale his
torical changes associated with innovations in conllllllllicatiOll media, none
ha\'e focused exclusively on the issue with which I am concerned here: world
order transformation, The next section prO\'ides an oven'iew of the modifi
cations and elaborations that I make to medium theory in order to accom
modate it to this problematique.

Theory and Epistemology

As alluded to abm'e, no theory is without its warts, and medium theo~'
is certainly not exempt. In order to accOllllnodate this particular <Jpproach
to Illy own set of questions, some retooling will be necessary if only to O\'er
come some of the more confusing <Jspects of I\lcLuhan and Innis's notori
ollSl~' difficult styles. The elaborations and revisions to mediulll theory that
follow can be grouped into two categories, both of them ha\'ing to do with
the question of cansality. The first is with respeet to the rclath'e emphasis
placed on comlllunication technologies as independent \'ariables; the sec
ond has to do with clearly articulating the exact nature of the effects that
arise frolll a change in the mode of communication. I will consider each of
these in turn.

Toward a Nonreductiollist J\'ledium Theor)'

A recurring criticism of mediulll theory is that it tends toward a form of
monocallsal reductionism and technological determinism. Certainly 1\1c
Luhan bears the brunt of this criticism, though other medium theorists are
not immune. Not unusual would be Carey's harsh indictment of 1\ IcLuhan
for a thorough "technological determinism" that closed down new ap-

Medium Theory

27

proaches to comnlllllication technology, and Jeftus with only "a soggy con
clusion rathcr than with detailed scholarship."'" Book rcviews of mcdiulll
theorists are particularl~' repetitions, so much so that one gets the impression
that reprimanding medinm thcory on this score is a formulaic device. Thus
Havelock's work on the Greck cnlightcnlllcnt is castigatcd for "clinging ...
to a simplistic reduetionism"that "seems to want to make alphabetic literacy
the sole causc of thc change
In EisclIStcin, one rcvicwcr detects "a
certain reductionist streak" and "a tendcncy to overestiln<Jte printing as
against other forces of change."";
Indeed. a curso~' glance at I\IcLuhan's work in particular might offer
substantiation for these criticisms, especially gi\'en his pcnchant for poctic
hyperbole -a style of writing that docs not lend itself well to cavcat. Supcr
ficial illustrations of technological determinism are not hard to find in books
concei\'Cd as aphoristic "probes" rather than scientific trcatiscs. In fact, Mc
Luhan's work is constituted by them. In describing his project, McLuhan
once admittcd that "I don't explain-I cxplorc" -;1 rcvealing quote tlwt bcgs
the qllestion of the gronnds on which snch analysis should bc held account
able."" \ "hilc a strong argument could be madc that a charge of technolog
ical detcrminism is probably bcsidc the point of nlllch of Mel ,1111<1n's work,
the charge itself shollld bc taken seriously in any analysis, sllch as this one,
that attempts something more conventional than bullet-likc, aphoristic
probes.
Figme I offers a picture of the technological dclcrminist/monocal1Sal
reduetionist model of change. Though no one particular medium theorist
can be said to sllbscribe fully to such a simplistic model of change, some
employ language or semantic inflections that arc at times consistent with
such a picture of the interplay between technology and society. Eisenstein's
use of the word "agent" to describe an inanimate technology- the printing
press-is a case in pointY I\loreO\'er, this base/snperstructure model is a
familiar one across a \'ariety of thcorclic;J1 perspcctives (orthodox M;HXislll
being the prime example) where single overarching "master" variables a~e
held as determinant."~ When critics of medium theorists reprimand them
for technological determinism they are implicitly invoking this flawed pic
ture of causality. Any attempt at revising medium theory should confront
the man~' interrelated pitfalls inherent in such a simplistic model of change.
The most serious flaw in this model is that it tends to view the introduc
tion of a new technology of communication as an autonomous force with
certain definite and predictable results irrespeetive of the social and histor

zK

I :--lTRODUCTION

Superstructure / Ideas / Behaviors

Base / Material Instrument of Technology

FI G II REI.

The technological deterlllinist/mono-callsal redllctionist lIlodei of

change

ical context in which it is introdnced. Specific social phenomena are seen

as invariably tied to a specific technology, as if the technology itself had the
power to generate beha\'iors and ideas de 1I0ra. Thus. technological deter
minists tend to put forward such reductionist claims as "the printing press
created imlidduality" or "the Reformation is the child of the printing
press" -claims that clearly fall apart upon closer ill\"Cstigations that re\'eal
the multiplicity of factors in their de\elopment. By attributing "generati\'e"
causal powers to the mode of communication, the technological determinist
model tends to slight the extent to which the technology itself emerges out
of a particular context and is itself influenced by social, cultural, and his
torical forces. This relati\'e neglect of contextual factors is especially mis
leading not only because it tends to pridlege the technology over other
factors, but also because it produces faulty projections for the introduction
of a similar technology in different cultures and contexts. Furthcrmore. the
picture of causality employed sets up a strong binary opposition between the
"material" and the "ideal," with social forces and ideas placed in a subordi
nate, deri\'ati\'e position to the material instrttment of technology. And be
cause social consequences are seen as arising out of. or generated by, the
technology itself in this way, the technological determinist model portrays

Medium Theory

29

historical change as a radical disjuncture, with the tecllllology as thc hinge

a \icw of cpodlal changc now widely discrcdited among historians:'"
'10 amid these pitfalls, we must underscore the "social embcddedness" of
technology. \\'e must place greater emphasis on the historical and social
context in which teellllologies arc introduced, an insight most forcefully
made by social cOllStrttcti\'ists of technology.ln These theorists trace the way
socialnceds de\"Clop toward which certain innovations are applied. 'I 'he 1II0st
comprehensi\"C of thcm show how social forces in conjunction with available
material resources and technical knowledge mold the constrttction and in
\'entiOlI of new technologies. In doing so, they dispel the illusion maintained
by the teellllological deterlllinist that tecllllologies cnler society amI generate
specific social forces ami/or ideas de 110\'0. As I will show in chapters 2 and
5. the emergences of printing and hypermedia respectively were not sudden,
"ont-of-nowhere" de\doplllents. In both cases, social needs drovc tecllllD
logical innO\'ation. The creation of new technologies was, in turn, depen
dcnt 011 the existing stock of scientific knowledge (broadly understood) as
well as the <J\'ailable material resources. Technologies are always, in this
sense. socially constructed,
Bnt despite its strengths as a correcti\'e to the technological determinist
model, the social comtrttcli\'ist position has a tendency to fall into the op
posite trap and slight. if not ignore altogether, any independent effects at
tributable to the teclmology itself ollce introduced. It is important to remcm
ber tll<1t although social forces lIIay give direction to tccllllological
innO\'ation, they are not completely determinant; once introduced a tech
nolog\' becollles part of the material landscape in which hunwn agents and
social groups interact. ha\'ing many unforeseen effects. These are the effects
the medium theorist is most concerned with. As I will show in part 1 of this
study. one of the more cnthusiastic early supporters of printing technol
og~'- one of the main social groups responsible for its rapid spread - was the
Roman Catholic Chmch. But the salTle bishops and monks who activcly
encouraged the establishment of local printing houses never anticipated the
way heresies. like the Protestant Reformation, would thrive with the wide
spread a\'ailability of this ne\\' technology. The full effects of printing wcnt
unforeseen by the \'ery actors who encouraged and shaped its early devel
opment. So. while social constrttcti\'ists of technology underscore the way
social forces shape teclmologieal innovation, they tend to overlook the pos
sibility that technological innO\'ation, in turn, could have an impact on
socieh' itself. But if technological determinists gi\'e a misleading portrayal of

INTRODUCTION

thcse unforeseen effects and social constructivists slight them altogether.

whcrc docs that Icave lIS?
The way I suggest we articulate this process is by reAecting on and am
plifying one of the more prominent metaphors in medium theory-media
as cmircmmcnts-and by the usc of a Darwinist c\'Olutionary analogy to
descrihe the processes by which marginal forces on thc bordcrs of society
arc brought into the center by the unintended eonsequenccs of tecllllolog
ical innovation."
In classical I)am'inian theories of e\'olution. cm'ironmcntal changes
strongly condition the differential stJrvi"al and reproduction of species,;c
Although specics arc vitally dependent OIl their environmcnt, thc cm'iron
ment itself cannot be said to engage in the selection process b~' acting on
species; rather, innovations and genetic mutations producc a "ariety of physi
cal characteristics which, in turn, arc selected blindly according to thcir
"fitness" or mateh with the environment. Not to be confused with
nineteenth-centmy "Social Darwinist" vicws of progrcssivc de"elopmcnt."
emlution from this perspective assumes no inherent direction or pmpose
but is a contingent, open-ended historical process,
Similarly, ,1 change in the mode of connlllmication (cmironmcnl) will
"fann" certain social forces and ideas (species) by means of a functional bias
toward some and not others, just as natmal environments determine ,,'hich
species prosper by "selecting" for certain physical characteristics, In other
words. the properties of a communications em'ironment-the unique ,,'ays
in ,,'hich information can be stored, transmitted, and distributed in that
environment- "fa\'Or" the interests of some social forces and ideas o\'er oth
ers, These social forces and ideas flomish or thri\'e, while others are placed
at a significant disadvantage and tend to wither o\'er time, Unlike both the
technological determinist and social conslructi,'ist positions, unintended
consequences loom large from this perspecti,'e, \Ve ,\'Ould anticipate, in
other words, that some social forces a11(1 ideas that ,,'ere nwrgilwlized in one
commtmications em'ironment may resonate strongly oncc that environment
changes. Likewise. those actors and groups that initially ga\'e support to, and
drovc the early development of, a new technology of communication may
find themselves at a disad,'antage once the full characteristics of the new
communications environment take root.
This Darwinist evolutionary analogy is particularly useful because it
moves away from the technological determinist view of technologies "gen
erating" specific social forces and ideas. It affirms that the genesis of social

Medium Theory

31

forces and ideas ultimately reAects a multiplicity of factors that cannot bc

reduccd to a singlc O\Tr;Hching "master" variable. Instcad, it focuses on the
existing stock of social forces and ideas, asking ,,hich will likcly flomish or
,,'ithcr dcpending on their "fitness" or match wilh the new comll1lmicalions
endromncnt. It "Ail'S" the pictmc of causality. so to speak. From this per
specti,e, a ne,,' mode of c01l11lHmication is not an "agent" bnt rathcr a pas
sin', structmal feature of the tecllllologieal lamlseape in which 11I1I1wn be
ings interact, It imposes certain constraints or limitations on the nature ami
typc of possible human comnnmications. while facilitating other types, but
it docs not impose thought or beha\'ior in any crude one-to-one fashion. It
is an emirOlnncllt. ;\ml likc natmal cmiromnents, when it changes sonIc
species ,,ill be fa\'Ored ,,hile others will be disadvantaged, not because of an
acti,'e intervention 011 the part of the em'ironment itself, but rather because
thc fnnctional propertics of thc environmcnt eithcr reinforce or constrain
the characteristics and interests of the species within it. The perspective is
historic;ll1~ contingent. insofar as thc type of cffects that cnsuc from a changc
in the commtmications em'ironment depend entirely on the extant social
groups. institutions, and ideas of the time in question.
'Ii) cxtend the analogy. there arc two quite distinct "spceies" upon which
the sclection process bears in a changing eon11l1l1nications environment.
which brings me to my second modification to medium theory,

1\1'0 effects: Distributional Changes

</lId

Changes to

Social Epistemolog\'

\Vhen a communications cm'iromllent undergoes fundamental transfor

mation. two different types of effects can be discerned. Consider the follow
ing quote by Good~':
Systems of connlHmieation arc clearly related to what l1Ian can makc
of his world both internally in terms of thought and externally in terms
of his social and cultmal organization, So changes in the means of
c01l1111lmication ;He linked in dircct as well as indircct ways to changcs
in the patterns of human interaction,;~
Good~' is alluding to the dual effects of any change in communication
technologies. I call these hm effects distributional changes and changes to
social epistelllologr respecti\'ely,

32

INTROlJUCTION

On the one ham\' a change in the comll1lmicatiuns environment has

specific tangible, (li.~/riblJ/iollal effeels on the soci,11 and political infrastruc
tme. In Innis's formulation, "Inventions in communication compel realign
ments in the nlOllOpoly or the oligopoly ofknowledge.";; This effect depends
on two ;1SSlIIuptions alluded to above: first is the 1I10st basic proposition of
medium theory. that specific comnllmications em'ironments ha\'e a certain
"logic" or "natme" 1I0t in any determinist sense, but only in the sense of
"m;lking 11Innan communications of certain types easier or more difficlllt.";(,
The second assumption is that society is made up of discernible social forces
that, while not necessarily "rational" in the HOlllo eCOllOl1liCllS, utility
maximizing scnse of the term, are nonetheless moti\'alcd by certain histori
calk amI culturally varied interests and goals. By "social forces," I mean
actual social groups, actors, and various forms of social organization-all
11Oflllati\'e or goal-<lriven social behaviors. The methodological task becomes
clear when the two assumptions are married: identifying those social forces
whose interests, goals, and logics of organization arc likely to "fit" with the
new communications environment, and those whose do nol. Typically, those
social forces whose interests, goals, or logics "fit" the new communications
emironmcnt do not just survive in the same form as before. They are em
powered by the new means of communication at their disposal. They find
a "niche" alld Aomish, and, as a result, become a more prominent feature
of the world politicallalldscape. Likewise, social forces that may ha\'e thrived
in onc commlmications environment may find themseh-es at a significant
disad\'antage once that environment changes.
But the question naturally arises: \\'hy cannot social forces merely adapt
or control technologies to their own ends? One obvious reason is that the
properties of a comlllunications environlllentmight be at such fundamental
odds to the core interests, or raisoll d'e/re, of particular social actors or groups
that they have no choice but to resist vigorously (often with lillie success)
thc fmther spread of that environment. But part of the reason also relates to
the rehltive illAexibility of social forces. Because social forces acquire a cer
tain "path-dependency" or institutional inertia based on the shared habits of
thought and action of the multitudes of indi\'iduals that comprise them, the~'
cannot easily adapt to new circumstances. Their institutional incumbenc~',
as Gould calls it, "reinforces the stability of the pathway once the little quirks
of early Aexibility push a sequence into a finn channel.";~ Likewise Spru~1
notes how "transaction costs, set belief systems, and standard operating pro
cedures mitigate against frequent o\'erhaul" of social forces and institutions.;~

Medium Theory

33

Human beings tend to be creatmes of habit, and social forces conlJJfise mallY
habitual indidduals all of whom have limited lifespam ,md thus relatively
short time-horizol1S, The eonseqnences of t()(lay's short-tenn choices - sneh
as promoting Ihe de\'elopment of a new technology that will makc specific
tasks simpler or more efficient (cheaply reproducing bibles, for exanl
plel-are notusuall~' understood in terms of thcir long-tcrm ilnplic<ltions or
uninlcnded consequences, As I will outline in later el1<Iplcrs, this certainly
describes the predicament of the Roman Catholic Chllfch \'is-a-\'is the print
ing press. These distributional ch<lnges -changes, tl1<lt is, in the relative
power of social forces - arc perhaps Ihe most dircct conscqucncc of a change
in the mode of conn111lnication.
On the other hand. to rclmll to Goolly's rcmarks abovc, a change in the
connnunications em'ironment affects not just social organization, but also
the "internal" world of ideas amI ways of thinking.;'1 Conmlunieation envi
ronments. in other words, also select ideas, social constructs and modes of
cogllition. '11) take but one specific exa III pie oftcn cited by lIlediumtheorists,
the introduction of writing encomages abstract thought bccause words and
ideas can be manipulated amI cum pared to a greater extent tll<ln thcy can
in oral societies. t,lI Ilere we arc conceflled with the way comll1unication
technologies inAuence what Ruggie labels a transformatiun in social epis
/el1lologl'.(,! Social epistemology refers broadly to the wcb-of-beliefs into
which a people arc acenlturated and through which thcy pcrcei\'e the world
arollnclthem. t,: It ellCOlnpaSses an interwu\'en sci of historie<llly contingent
intersubjective menial characteristics, r<lnging from spatial or temporal cog
niti\'e biases, 10 shared s~'I11bulic forms, to various group identities, or to
"imagined communities," which are unique to a specific historical context,
and differentiate one epoch from anothcr. 61 Among French social theorists
and medie\'alists it is referred tu as lIIell/alites collecli\'es-the sl1<lrcd mcntal
predispusitions of a pupulation in time-and it pla}'s a crucial rule in their
inlcrprclation of cultl1fes.t.~
In highlighting changcs to suci<ll epistelllulugy, mediulll theory has a
close affinity to sociology of knowledge or social constructivist approaches. M
At its most basic, what these perspecti\'es share is thc bclief that a wide range
of social. economic, and political factors shape the genesis and struclure of
human thought and behavior, and thus the contours of social epistemology.
l'vlediurn theory adds a materialist dimension to these perspectives by focus
ing on changes in communication technology. A common example of an
argument linking technological inno\'ation and social cognition in this way

INTROl>l'CTION

is Lcwis Mumford's treatment of the impact of thc e10ck on \Vcstern society

in '/l'dlllies I1m{ Cil'ili:l1firJII. M Prior to thc elock, the mcaslHe of timc was
determined or~;mically. that is, hy the sun and the scasons; bcginning in the
fOlHlcenth cenlury. lhe measure of time was reoriented by the clock with
important social ramifications. The clock "dissociatcd time frolll human
e"ents ;lIld helped create the belief in an indepcndent world of mathemat
ically IIIcasurablc scqucnces .. ,"67 As Mumford gocs on to cxplain:
Whcn one thinks of the day as an abstract space of time, one does
not go to bed with the chickcns on a winter's night: one invents
wicks, chimncys, lamps. gaslights, electric lamps, so as to lISe all
the hours belonging to the day. When one thinks of time, not as a
scquence of experiences, but as a collection of hours. minutes. and
seconds, the habits of adding time and saving time come into ex
istence. Time took on the character of an enclosed space; it could
be divided, it could be filled up, it could evcn be expanded by the
invention oflabor-saving instruments.... Abstract time became the
new medium of existence. 68
l\lumford's social construction of timc nicely illustrates the type of inter
prcli"c approach that should be employed when attention turns to the effects
of thc mode of commlmication on social cpistemology. Effcctively cxploring
the link bctween communication technology and social epistemology moves
llS cOllSiderabl~' into the rcalm of semiotics and the sludy of symbolic forms,
This mO\'c neccssitatcs a much richcr type of interpreti"c analysis th,m thc
methodological strictures of more positi,'ist-oriented theorizing allows: thick,
:1S opposed to thin, description in Clifford Geertz's f0rJ1111lation. 69 \\'e must
he able to tap into and unearth the eonstituti"e social norms of a period, the
unconscious boundaries and biases that frame experience, the symbolic
forms that give meaning to bchavior for a people.- n These social norms and
symbolic forms are crucial because thcy provide what might bc called "the
metaphysical underpinnings" of the constitutive features of world order. If
only by llneonseious biases and orientations common to a people, "social
epistemology" is implicated in the architecture of world order. r..ledium
theory, as used here, does not argue that the mode of communication gen
erates these symbolic forms and cognitive biases; rather. it argues that
changes in the mode of communication will "favor" or allow for the selection
among the extant symbolic forms and biases of a society, thus gi\"ing rise to

Medium Theory

~s

a new social epislclllolo~'- rclhreading thc wcbs of significancc, in other

words.
It is important 10 empha,si7.e thaI thc "fitncss" betwccn e1cmcnts of social
epistcmologv and a ncw conn11lmic,ltions environment is largely an il/fer
gel/erafiol/a{ as opposcd to an il/frap,sychic proccss. In olhcr words, it docs
not mean that each indi,'idnaJ person will snddcnJy abandon long-held
mclaph~sic,ll presnppositions ami cognitivc biases as a rcsult of their expo
sure to a new conn11lmicatiollS em'ironmcnl. New technologies of com
munication do nol carry within lhem mysterious magical properties thaI
O\'Crpower those with whom lhey comc in contacl. Nor do they come
equipped with their own speci,ll social cpistemology, "Individualisn'" as a
s~'I11bolic form is not im'ariably lied to the printing press (although, as I hope
to demonstmte below, the forlller flourishcd in lhe cnvironmcnt of the lat
ter). Rather, it means that in a particular cOl1n11lmications environment,
particular elements of social epislemo'o~' will have a bcttcr chance of find
ing a "niche" ami thus survi,'ing aud flourishing ovcr limc. In other words,
an increasing portion of those accnlturatcd into a new comnllmicatiol1s en
"ironment will C0111e to sce a parlicular symbolic form or social construct
as more "natural" and "reasonable" -more consistent wilh lheir ovcrall com
mlmic;ltions experiem:e - and it is lhrough th is intergeneralional "selection"
process that it will flourish O\'CT time.
Trcating c1J;1nges to soci;ll epislcmology in lhis wa)'-111<lt is. as a kind of
"selection" process in which specific ideas, s)'mbols, values, and beliefs flour
ish or "'it her depending on ;1 chance "filness" wilh the conl1nunications
em'irolllnent- bears a close reselllb\;lIIce to an ;lpproaeh developed by hi
ologist Richard Dawkins, ;lud laken up by olhers, called "memclies."7J
Dawkins and olher practilioners of memetics believe that the basic principles
of "descent with modification" thaI Darwin oUllined apply not just 10 "genes"
but to the processes of cultural e\'Olution as well-to the relative survival of
different culturalunils that Dawkins called "memcs";

Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrascs, clothes, fashions,

ways of making pots or building arches. Just as genes propogate them
seh-es in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperm or
eggs, so memes propagate themseh-es in the meme pool by leaping
from brain to brain "ia a process which, in lhe broad sense, can be
called imitation, If a scientisl hears, or reads about, a good idea, he

,lJ

INTRODUCTION

passes it on to his colleagues amI students. Ill' mentions it in his ar

tidcs and his lectures. If the idca catehes 011. it can he said 10 propogate
itself. sprcadin~ from brain to brain. 7z
Although DawkillS and othcr practitioners of "memetics" have nol, as far
a,s I know. concei\'ed of a selection mechanism that includes chalH,;ing
modes of l'oll1nllmication, there is an obvious compatibility in the ap
proaches. ,\nd DawkillS's lengthy list of typical "memes" (tunes, ideas, catch
phrases, ete) briugs up an important anal~1ical point: the ideas, values, be
liefs, symbolic forms, and social constructs that comprise the social
epistemolo~\ of a lime would obviollSly blankct a wide spectflnn of di\'Cfse
traits. 'I'rackinf,; down every single one of those that flourish and wither with
a chauge in the mode of eomnHmication would surel~' be a formidable task,
So for ;m;lh tical purposes I have broken them down into a manageable
(though not necessarily exhaus!i\'e) set. In the chapters to follow that focus
011 changcs to social epistemologv (4 and 7), I examine three specific de
ments: indi\'idllal idell/itics, spatial biases, and il/lagined communities. As I
hope to demonstrate, changes in all three of these elements (the way "the
self' is COllt'ci\'ed, the way space is ordered, and the way group identities arc
imagined). arc crucial in providing what might be called the "metaph~'sical
underpinnings" of world order. As I also hope to show, changes in modes of
conn11lmication have an important impact on their e\'olution.
In SIlm, changes in modes of communication ha\'c an important effect
on Ihe naturc ami character of society and politics. Thcse cffccts \'ary in
teflllS of thc social and historical context in which the technology is devel
oped. New technologies of communication do not generate specific social
forces and/or ideas, as technological determinists would ha\'C it. Rather, they
rc,cilita/e amI com/rain the extant social forces and ideas of a society. The
11\'pothesized process can be likened to the interaction between species and
a changing n;ltural environment. New media environments favor certain
social forces ami ideas by means of a functional bias toward some and not
others, much the same as natural environments determine which species
prosper by "selecting" for certain physical characteristics. In other words,
social forces and ideas survive differentially according to their "fitness" or
match with the new media environment-a process that is both open-ended
and contingent.
There are two conceptually distinct ways in which these effects operate:
distributional changes and changes to social epistemology. Distributional

Medium Theory

,7

changcs refer to changcs in the relati\'C power of social forccs, while clwnges
to social cpislcnlology refcr to changcs <I1nong e1Clnents of thc prc\'ailing
mcn/ali/es collecli\'e,s, Thesc two conceptually distinct effccts will in lum
IHO\'idc the basis for the anal~,tical scheme to be employcd in the chapters
to follow. The study is di\'ided into two parts, both of which arc cOlnpriscd
of three chapters:
the first chapter in each part IHO\'ides a historical amI descriptive
O\'en'iew of the de\'elopmcnt of a new eomllllmieations
el1\'ironmcnt - printinf,; in part I and hypermedia in part 2
(chaptcrs 2 amI 5);
the second ch<lpter examines the distribntionaJ changes that resnlt
from the change in the mode of comnlunication (chapters' a11(1
() I;

the third chapter examines the changes to social epistcmology that

rcsnlt from the change in the mode of conllllunication (chapter,s 4
amI 7).

Ecologicalllolisln and t\lediulI1 Theory

Ilm'iug made these suhstantialmodificaliollS and e1aboraliol1.S to nledinm
theory. I am now in a better position to articulate more clearly the Incta
theorctical assumptiollS on whi<:h this study rests. The nomeductive, no
lutionary medium theory approach outlined abO\'e 11Il1St, by necessity, cn
compass a 111uch wider perspecti\'e on the dynamics of hUluan/technological
interaction than the simple 1110110causal picture portrayed in figure I. Figure
2 depicts what I call an "ecological holist" picture of human existence. This
figure essentially Imcarths amI clearly articulates the cultural materialist IU1
derpinning that is at least implicit in the writings of Innis, and perhaps l110St
explicit in the work of those medium theorists with a social anthropological
background like Goody, ~Iumford, and Gellner. It is significantly influenced
by the work of the French Annales school of historians, represented by Brau
del, Duby, and Le Goff. Each ring in the figure refers to a conceptually
distinct component of human existence, none of which are reducible to the
others. The lines separating each component are not rigid, but blend into
one another at the margins.

,;')

INTRO()lICTIO:,-/

Medium Theory

potations and organizations on the formal side to habits of actions and gen
eralmodcs of organizillg l(lllllan intcraction alld subsistellee 011 the illformal
side,-; Sitnated between the material environment and institntions is tech
Ilolog\. In its narrow sense, tecllllologv refers to applied knowledge, bnt here
the terlll is nsed in its more comnlOn sense to encompass both practical or
applied knowledge (formally, teclmolog\') as well as the material instruments
or artifaets of technology (formally, technics), such as the printing press. 7fi
As a material artifact, technology is constrained by the available resources
of a time and place: hut as a tool it is always conditioned by and emerges
out of existillg social institntions, knowledge, and skills-what we earlier
referred to as the "social elllbeddedness" oftecllllology.ln ontological Icrms,
technology should not he seen as mercly an appendage to human society,
but a dceph- interh\'ined constituti\'C feature oflnllnan society. In Mazlish's
words:

FI G 1I R E 2,

Ecological Holism

At the center are the hasic inherited neurophysiological adaptatioll.~ alld

traits shared by the species as a whole. Not to be confused with crude clas
sical realist speculations on a fixed al\(I determining "human nature," nor
with the neoclassical "rational" actor assumptions,-1 these dispositions are
confined to certain morphological or neurological properties shared by the
species as a whole. The mere fact that they are so general as to be able to
accommodate the \'ast di\'ersity of cultures that ha\'e existed throughout his
tory means that they will ha\'e little bearing on our analysis.-~
The first ring rcfers to the lI'eh-{}(beliefs, or what I referred to earlier as
"social epistemology." '10 reiterate, it includes a historically contingent web
of intersubjecti\'e values, beliefs, cognith'e biases, al\(I symbolic and linguis
tic forms into which a people are acculturated. This web-of-beliefs is not
species-wide, but \'ariable from culture to culture or epoch to epoch. It forms
the broad epistemic lens through which a people interpret and act on the
world around them. The web-of-beliefs blends into the next ring, which is
composed of formal and informal illstitutiolls, ranging from states and cor-

The e\'idence now seems strong that humans evolved from the other
animals through a continuous interaction of tool, physical, and
melltal-emotional changes. The old view-that humans arrived on the
e\'Olutionary scene flllly formed al\(I then proceeded to discover tools
and the new \\a\'s of life that they made possihle-no longer appears
acceptable.-
The last ring refers to the material or geopf,ysical elH'irrJIIl1lent, including
demographics, disease. climate, and natural resources, all of which have a
loose constraining effect 011 the broad trajectory and character of social evo
lution.-~ For millennia theorists ha\'C speculated on the impact of these broad
material factors on the nature of human societies, amI there is a strong
tradition of "natural" theorizing reaching back to the ancient Creeks,7'! For
the time-frame of most analyses, howe\'er, these basic material factors can
be aSSllmed aW;1\' as rclati\'Cly insignificant. Bllt in stl\(lies that foens on the
IOllgue duree. they take 011 more importanec,~"
Although the figure ma\' gi\'e the appearance of stasis, it is important to
emphasize that ecological holism is fundamentally historicist in outlook,
meaning that human existence is seen as a eontinuollsly evolving interplay
between em'ironmental al\(I technological conditions, formal and informal
institutions and practices, and intersubjeetive values and beliefs. From this
perspeeth'e, "rational ities," identities, nations, a nd states - though potentially
stable in their basic contours O\'er relati\eJy long periods of time-are none

11'\ T R 0 [) II C T ION

theless prodllcts of historical cOlltill~ellcies alld thlls sllbject to chan~e as

nallnc alld socit'l\, cvoh-cs,"
It is also importallt to be clear that change from this perspecti\'e is not
the ullfoldin~ of predetermined pallerns, or teleological processes. but rather
"thc gralld aggrcgation and multiplication of the actions of indi\'idnals and
grollps ill COllcrete historical circumstances as these illdi\'idnals arc respolld
illg to a IIll1ltiplicity of biological, psychological and social needs.~~2 Thus
c1wnee or contillgeney play an important part in the natme and direction
of social ('\'()Intion. From an ecological holist perspecti\'e. eonceptnal. tech
1I010gical. ccollomie, or other changes in human pallerns of interaetion can
alter the 1IIIIIIall de\'elopmental p;lth in ullexpected w;lys that de~\' more
linear notions of change. In this respect, ecological holism runs contrary to
those theories that argue for the existence of recurring "Iong-cycles~ or pro
gressi\'e "stages of de\'elopmen( throngh which all societies arc assumed to
passY It is informed by a "Darwinist" \'iew of history-that is. one that sees
no lmfolding logic to history, but only "descent with modification:~j
Of course, fUlldamental change in the basic structures of human society
is not continuous but episodic gi\'Cn the relati\'e stability and endurance of
human institutions. ideas, and habits, In Gaddis's words, "comlitions can
persist for years with so little alteration that people come to accept them as
pernl;llIelll."~' III the past, there was a tendency among some social theorists
to look for a sillgle "master~ \'ariable that could be seen as dri\'ing all episodes
of fU\l(hll1lental c1wnge, whether it be the mode of prodnction or teclmol
ogies of destrnction. But according to the ecological holist perspecti\'e ad
\'anced here. the specific source of flmdamental change at anyone time in
hUll1an history c;nmot be stated 011 a priori grounds. amI typically reAects a
multiplicity of factors- both material and ideal-that happen to cOl1\'erge
in the form of a slldden transformation in hUll1an patterns of interaction.'6
1\ Iediunl theory can be seen as a subsidiary approach embedded in an
ecological holist pcrspecti\'e, isolating those changes that arc encouraged
alld facilitated by a change in the 1I10de of comnllmieation, This focus
should not be taken as an assertion of the fundamental primacy of eom
nllmications O\Tr other spheres of human existence, but merely a heuristic
di\'ision of scholarly labor. Technological changes in communications media
are one among many other important innO\'ations that produce no\'elty in
social interaction, Yet because connl1lmieation-like production and secu
rity- is so \'ita] to human existence, these changes will likely ha\'e far
reaching implications. Thus while in this study I am focusing on the rela-

Medium Theory

41

tiomhip between changing modes of cOlmlllmieation and world order

transformation. Ihe focus itself should not be ettlwted with a kind of "master
narrati\e~ to histor\' centered on connnunications,

Ecological JJolislll, l\lcdiulll Thcory, and Intcrnational

Relations Theory

It shollid bc clear from the ()\'Cf\'icw that the tenor of IIIcdillm theory is
c1earl~' aligned with the "historical sociology" side of thc International Re
Iatiom ficld. as opposed to the more ahistorical approaches Robert Kcohane
identifies as "rationalist:~- Robert Cox points olltthat rationalist :Ipproaches.
which he calls "problem-soh-ing," arc suitable to "periods of apparent stability
or fixity in power rclations,"~~ Surprisingly. these approaches represcnt the
majority of the ficld today. C\Tn thon~h we appear to be in an cra of fnn
damcntaltransformation, As Gellner renwrks: 'Thc great paradox of om agc
is that although it is undergoing social and intellectual change of totally
unprecedented speed amI depth. its thought has become, ill the main, 1111
historical or ahistorical."~"
The two dominant approaches in the field today-lleorcalislll and IICO
liberalism-are ahistoricalnot because the\' are ullable to ;JJnass "historical"
details in support of their claims, but rather because they seck essentially to
escape histo~' b~' gronllding their thcories in fnndamelltal prcsnpposiliollS
be it the anarchic structure or the desire to maximize utilities-which are
posited as Imi\'ersal (i,c,. timelcss, contextlcss) f01mdations."1J III Adlcr's ter
minology. they are both exalllples of what he calls theorics of "being" - "a
pre\'alent notion that sees e\'e~-thing in nature and society as static and
mechanistic. inclnding change,""1 For neorealists espccially, the main com
ponents of the inlcrllational s~'stem arc trcated as if "suspellded in space"
"time has lillie to do with thelll, and 1II()\'elllcnt alld chan~c :JrC lincar. . , ,"'JZ
E\'en those cyclical theorists like Robert Gilpin who appear 10 gi\'c a 1II0re
dynamic treatment to the interllational syslcm by allowing for differential
grO\\,th still present change as merely the rearrangement of ratiOlwlly moti
vated "units" under the lIni\'ersal constant of a constraining anarchic order.'1l
Likewise, neoliberalism offers what Wendt calls a "beha\'ioral conception of
both process and institutions: they change behavior but not identities and
interests,~~ For all thcir apparent clifferences over the question of relati\'e
\'erSllS absolute gains, neoliberals and neorealists are alike in assuming the

-F

IN IKOIIl'C 110:'\

natural order of world politics to be one of lmitarY rational actors in an

;Inarchic sCllin!;.'''
The altem;lli\'e to thcories of beinE;, accordinE; to Adler, arc theories of
"becominE;" -tbose that sec human existence "as a perm;ment proccss of
changc and cmlutiou, e\'euthat \\hich appears to bc static" -a category that
oln-iollSk inclndes ecologic<11 holism% There arc fc\\' cxamples of the type
of full-blown historicism elwracteristic of theorics of "becoming" in the In
lernational Relations field, although that is changing, Increasingly. a I1Il1nber
of scholars sec their work as fallillg outside of either the neorealist or nco
libcral camps, amI what might be termed a "historicist" school of Interna
tional Relations theorists can be identified ill the field."- The COllmlOn de
nominator of this school is a shared \iew of human institl1tiolls and practices
(including states. natiolls, identities, aud illterests) as products of historical
contingellcies amltbus sl1bjectto challge O\'Cltime, Ilistoricists sec politics
not as a eyelical. rceurring phenomellon (as lIeorealists clearly do) but rather
as ,m opell-cnded proccss,
II istoricists can be differeutiated ill terms of the relati\'C weight they pl<1ce
011 the "material" versus the "ideal" as expl<1n<1tory \ariables-a distinction
that harkcns back to l\tmx ami I legcl respccti\'cly. For cxample. Robcrt Cox's
"historical stlllctures" approach. which explicitly articulates all opell-ellded
e\'Olutionary theory that takes iuto account material ell\'ironmellts. institu
tiolls. and illtcrsubjecti\'e \'alues alld beliefs, ultimatek falls toward the "ma
teri;ll" end of the spectrum because of the O\'Crriding importance allached
to the mode of production as a determinant \'ariable."~ Likewise. Daniel
DCl1dncy's oll!;oing rcconstlllclion of materialist gcopolitical thcories
\\'hich explorcs thc relationship among broad envirollmental cOllditiolls.
changing teclmologies of destruction, and world order formation-also falls
toward the "malcrial" end because of the weight gi\'C1I to military teelmol
ogies.'N 'Iuward the "ideas" end of the spectrum fall the social constructi\'ist
theories of \\'elldt. Kratochwil, and others, which foclls 011 the historical
mallcability of interests, idelltities. ami illStitlltiollS,I'" These approaches tend
to cOllcentrate purely on the interaction between social epistemology and
institutiolls to the cxclusion of em'iromllerltal or teclmologiGll factors. They
lack the "grounding" of the more materially encompassing theories outlined
abo\'e, and tend to downplay or ignore material factors as causally significant
\',uiab1cs in politics.
As shown in Figure Z, ecological holism can be seen as an attempt to
O\'erC01l1e this binary opposition between "materiar factors and "ideas:

Medium Theory

43

\\hich are seen 1I0t in either/or terms. but as part of a single whole, Ecolog
ical holism takcs as its starting point the basic materialist posiliouthat hnman
beiugs, like all other orE;auisms, arc \'itally dependent on, amI thus inAu
em'Cd by. the clI\'ironmcnt arollml them, Ilowc\'Cr, it recognizes Ibal he
camc humau beings h<l\'e the unique ahility to cOlllmunicate complex sym
bols amI idcas. the~' do not approach their enviromnent on the basis of pure
illstinct (as other organisllls do) nor as a linguistically naked "given," but
rather through a complex web-of-beliefs, symbolic forms, amI social con
structs inlo which the~' are acculturated and through which they perceive
the world around them, ;\s Lllke describes:
The \\a~'s in which people apprehend their environment is (prelfor
mubted b~' the statements abollt ideas, "reality," objects, facts, reb
tiol1S, ,md so forlh Ihat organize a parlicular field of referencc. The
human subject in am' gi\'en historical era apprehends her or his world,
thc self. and thc ((.,lations betwcen sclf ami othcrs ou the basis of
historical discursi\'e practices that name. locate, and organize concrete
and abstract knO\dedge and experience. 1111
There arc fc\\' examples of ecological holism in thc field today, though
Ruggie's work on historicaltransforrnation is a clear exception, In "'Ierrito
rialih' amI Bemnd:' Ruggic states Ihe ecological holist position Ihat "material
e11\irolmlents. stralcgic beh;l\'ior, and social epistemology" arc "irreducible
to one another."'''' Other examples that arc perhaps less explicitly illustrativc
inclndc the \\'ork of ElIIst Ilaas amI Emannel Adlcr, who share the view that
"politics is a historical process that changes with physical changcs amlthc
e\'Olution of meanings,"'''' In their empirical \\'ork. both Haas and Adler have
focused on a more narro\\' time-frame in which "physical changes" can be
treated as a "gi\'en" for the purposes of analysis. Thus Adler's work on "epi
stemic con1l11l1nities" bears a strong resemblance to the social constructivism
of \Vcndt amI Kr,ltoch\\'i1-the major difference being the laller arc not
explicit about the extent to which material, geophysical factors are part of
their onlolog\'.'''~ Of course, the differences bctwecn ecological holism and
social constructi\ism are minimal compared to their similarities, especially
in contrast to mainstream rationalist approaches, which treat interests and
identities as relati\'ely fixed. Howe\'er, ecological holism provides a more
eomprehensi\'e picture of human existence, one that is vital for an exami
nation of the type of large-scale historical changes undertakcn here.

-H

[:'<TROIJUCTION

On l\ fcthodolog;~'
(1)\iOllSly, thc \Trsion of mcdium thcory I ha\'c put forward is incom
latihlc with a positi\'ist methodology, t-.lost important. thc cmphasis on his
oricity and radical contingcncy in social evolution c1ashcs with thc idea of
,\\ ~ standing apart frolll history. and I11IIs. hy cxfcmioll, thc mc of thc
Icducti\'c-nomological or co\'ering-Iaw model of inquiry. But the cO\'Cring
,1W model is not the only available mcthodology for thc typc of alia lysis in
I'hicll I am cngaged in this study. III rccent years. theorists have begun to
'xplore the use of historicalnarratire as a mode of explanation. 'o ; This modc
ccks to lillk occurrcnccs along a temporal dimcnsion. tracing thc \',Hiahlcs
Ind cOlltingcncics that wcre important in taking thc cmlutionary path down
me road as opposed to anothcr. Of course, narrati\'c explallations arc not
onfincd to hUlllan pcrsonalitics or what has oftcn bccn callcd disparagingl~'
hc "history of e\Tnts." As Donald Polkil1!;horne put it, "thc narrati\'e scheme
'rganil-cs thc illdi\'idllal e\'cnts it ,Iddrcsses using a framcwork of human
lurpOSCS and dcsircs. including the limits and opportunities posed by the
Ihysical, cultural. and pcrsonal em'ironments,"'0<1 Nor, do historical narra
i\'cs prccludc c1car analytical schemcs or logical protocols to incrcasc thc
'crisimilitllllc of thcir accounts. Thc usc of cOllllterfactuals is crucial to this
nodc of explanation. as are structurcd. focused comparisons.lo~ So in the
lagcs to follow, my argumcnts cstahlishing thc importance of changing
nodcs of comnllllliGltion will rely lIot just 011 as much cmpirical c\'idcncc
IS can he gleancd from primary and secondary sources. but on logical ar
;lImcnts as wcll, pointillg to "what might ha\'c been" had thcre bcen no
'h,lIlge in the comnllmications environment a't all. 1\Iost important. though.
n looking to the past in a structured, focused way, I ha\'e also constructed
m analytical Icns through which to interprct changcs that arc occurring
oday. In thc long run. it is the relati\'e utility of thc latter that willultimatcly
JrO\'e to be thc most important measure of this study,

Part 1
Printing and the Medieval to Modern
World Order Transformation

III.

~IFf)IF\'AI. TO ~IOf)FR:-J

had riscn to 23(>.111 By thc sixteenth century. Il'cstcrn Europe had entered ;]
ncll' conlll1lmications clll'iromncnt at thc ccnter of which Irere cheap, Illass
prodnced prillted documents emanating frolll the many printing presses
sf retched across tl,e land,
In this chapter, I have traced the de\'elopl1lent of cOJ11I11I1I1ication teeh
nologics tlrrough the fI.fiddle Ages leading up to the illl'ention of the printing
press in the mid-fiftccnth century I hal'e argued tlrat tire rise of the Church
in the early Middle Ages Was contingent on the comnll1l1ications elll'iron
mellt of the timc, Its spiritual attachment to litemcy alld the reproduction
of the writtcn word, its usc of parduncnt as a medium of con1l11unic'ltion.
and tire specific material and ecologicll circn11lstances of wcstem European
all helped prodnce a hospitable elll'ironlJJent for the Church's rise to he
gemony in thc fl.fiddlc Ages, \Vhilc thc Roman Catholic Clrurch had main
taincd a monopoly OI'er Initten comlllunications "p to the twelfth eentu~',
frOIII that point onward a gradual change in the con1l11l11lications el1\'iron
ment hegan to occur, as evidenced hy the growth of secular literacy and the
usc and reproduction of written documents outside of the formal papal
monastic network, In this respect. the illl'ention of printing actually rcpre
sents the culmination of slowly accllmulating social pressures. In other
words. the jlll'ention of printing was not a sudden "out-of-nowhere" del'c1
0plnent. hnt was <In outgrowth of cOll\'erging social prcssures for more effi
cient conlll1t11licatiollS, In conjunction with the hro,lder social and eco
nomic conditions of the time. howel'er, once printing began to spread
throngh \Vestern Emope. it remlntionized the COIlllllllllications elll'iron
mellt with significant consequences for society and politics, In the next t\\'o
chapters. I examine tIle ways in which the emergence of this ne\\' coml11U
nications em'ironment played a part in the transforJnation of the lnediel'al
world order.

Print and the 1Vledievcl1 to

l'vIodem \Vorld Order Transformation:
Distributional Changes

Changes in the mode of cOIllmunic,ltion hare far-reaching,

fundamelltal illlplicatiollS for the social amI political infrastructure of an era
and for the trajector~' of social emlntiol\. In chapter J I outlined two COll
eeptuall~' distinct effects that arise from a change in the mode of commu
nication: di~tribution,11 ch~lllges and changes to soci,t1 epistemology. III this
chapter. I concentralc onl~' on the forlller.
Distriblltional changes arc changes in the relatil'e power of social forces
as a consetjuence of the change in the mode of conllllunication, Because
modes of COllllllllllication translllit amI .store infortniltion in uniqllc ways,
social forces whose illtercsts match a cOllllnunicatiollS ellviromnent will be
fal'ored while those whose interests do not will be placed at a disadvantage.
Social forces sun'ile differentia"~'. in other Ilurds. according to thcir "fitness"
with the nell' media elll'iron1l1ent- a process that is both open-ended amI
cOlltillgent. Thus. medinm theor~' offers ncither all expl;lllation of the gen
esis of particular social forces. nor why they were animated hy partieuhH
interests ,IS opposed to others, Its purposc is to explaill why those forces
flourished or withered at a particular historical juncture.
Distributional changes undercut some social forces while they advance
the interests of othcrs, III this chapter. I examine the way distributional
changes associated with the del'e1opment of printing played a part in the
rnediel'al-to-1l10dern l\'Orld order transformation in Europe. I begin by ex
amining the way the change in the mode of comlllunication helped to

(I,..,

~ILI)fI-:""L

TO ;\IOIJER:'>:

disso,,"e the architecture of political authority in the late I\liddle Ages. Spe
cificall~'. I ('\pJore the ,,'ar two social forces. the Prot{'~tant Reformation and
scientific humanism. were famred by the new media em-ironment to the
disa<hantage of the Roman Catholic Church, I then examine the way trallS
fortn,llions in socioeconomic relatiollS that were elICorrraged h~' tIle change
in the mode of eOllllllunication helped to undermine the basis of feudal
socia I relal ions and pa"e the way for I110dern contractua I socioeconolll ic
relations among an increasingly important segl11cnt of the late lnedie"al
population: the urban bourgeoisie, This particular distributional change had
what I,'e lIlight call a "Ievcling" effect on patterns of political and economic
ohJi~ati(ln. at least in rrrb,1Il ,1reas, clltting throllgh the elltallgled wehs of
personallm'alties characteristic of the feudal era and opening up the possi
hility for COllllnon rule fro1ll a single center. Finalh-, I turn to the wa~' the
change in the 1Il0de of c0I11111unieation famred the rise of modern state
bmeaucracies and centralized political authority throughout parts of western
Europe, As Inan)" ha"e pointed out, the cOI1\'erging interests of the latter two
social forces-the urban bourgeoisie and centralizing state monarchies
were erncial in molding the architecture of Illodern world order in Europe.

Thc Ncw' 1\ledia Environment and the Dissolution of the

)\'Icdic\'al Ordcr
'llle Protesta1lt Refonllatioll
As outlined at the end of the previom chapter, by the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries strong social forces were emerging with nO"el agendas
amI interests that were pllShing at the margins of the Church's hegemony
0'"('[ kllowledge reproduction, SOl11e of these social forces can be character
ized as reactionary nl0,"<'ments within the Church itself. In this category. "'e
would inclnde the ,'ariollS religious "heresies" tllat periodically and sponta
neousl~' surfaced throughout western Europe beginning in the twelfth cen
tury, Although their specific goals and ideologies '"<Hied eonsiderabl~'. these
heretical movements arose during the High I\Iiddle Ages mostly in reaction
to the Church hierarchy, which, as pointed out in the pre"iolls chapter, was
assullling a more legalistic and secular face distanced from the popular de
\"ation tl1<1t marked its appeal during its embryonic da~'s as a missionary sect.'
The tophea,y adlllinistrati,'e organs of the Papal gm'ernment appeared less

Distributional Cilalllje5

"/

"other-world"''' and 1\10re corrnpt. cspecially ,IS succcssive popcs eng;lged in

or suc('\n1J!>ed 10 pOl\cr_politicallllachinations-an il1la~e dOl1hly reil1forccd
by events such as the Great Schislll,1 This declinc in Church popularity is
reReeted in the wa~' nWIIY Christians saw thc "Black Death" plague Ihal
swept through western buope ill the fourteenth centmy as a symbol of God's
dissatisfaction with the corruption of the Church.!
Prior to the elncrgcncc of printing. thc Cllllfch had hecn relatively SIlt'
cessful in sqnelching and cont,lining heresies prim,uily "hecausc it always
had better interllallines of cOlllnlllllicatioJl than its challcngers."1 Those that
were not stamped out )n' "iolcnce, or compelle in/rare, were more than likelr
to be coopted bv a fonn of special privilege or to be ignored altogether, as
various heresies Riekered amI then faded without nleans of llIass connllll
nication,; Febne amI i\ Iarlin wonder "wlwt lIIight have happelled if somc
of the e,ulier heresies (the Ilussite, for example) had the power of the press
at their disposal-power th,lt Luther and Cah'in used with great skill, first
in the attack Oil gome ,md then in tIle diffnsion of their new doctrines."A
The Inquisition. established ill the thirteenth century, was a reRection of
both the growing heretical clements within society and the Churcll's more
stringcnt reprisals agaimt thclll.- It rel\1ained an effective countermeasme
so long as the doclrilles Rowing from heretical movements could be halted
by taking l\1easures against the persons upon whol\1 the widespread trans
mission of such doctrines dcpended, \Vith the rapid dissemination amI pub
lication afforded )\' prillting, howe,er. heretical 1\100'emCllts had a mnch
better chance of spreading thcir message heyond the locality in which they
emerged. making it llIuch more difficult for the Church to take effective
COulltcnneasmes,
To illustrate tile way tecllllOlogical il1nO\'ations have unintended cOl1Se
quences, amI how fathoming sl1eh conseql1enees are difficult for those living
through thelll, it is interesting to note that the ChllTch was initially enthu
siastic ahout the prillting prcss, making thorollgh lise of it, for exaillple, ill
its anli-Turkish crusade,' One particular cardinal. Nicholas ofCusa, referred
to the printing press as a "di"ine art" hecause of the "'ay that the technology
would enable poor priests who would otherwise be unable 10 ;lfford Bibles
to ha\'e access to cheaper, mass-produced \'ersions.'1 And it is somewhat
ironic that the first dated printed product from Gutenberg's \\'orhhop was
an indulgence-the ,'e~' emblem of Church corruption in the eres of the
Protestant Reformation,I" In fact. the demand for printed books and liturgies
among Catholic churchmen drove the initial establishment of printing

,IEIlIE\'"'' TO ;\IOIJER:"

presses throughout Europe in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Some
of the Iargcst IIIOII;lslcries. like CIIlIlY amI Citeaux OIl Dijoll. illvited prillters
from Gernlan~' to set up printing workshops alld to teach monks the art of
printillg. rI Thc early printers thrived 011 commissiolls from nlOll<lsteries ami
cathcdrals for Latill hihles, missals, psalters. alld antiphlln;uies.'~ In one of
the first hooks prillted by the Brothers of the Common Life in Rostoek there
appeared the dedication that printing was the "handmaid of the Church.""
Onl~' hilldsi~ht could tell them how wrong they were.
lt is well known among historians and laypersons alike that the prillting
press was closely intertwined with the Protestant Reformation. What is often
confused is the specific causal relationship hetween the two. with techllo
logical determinists often attributing to the printing press the gellesis of the
Protestant Reformation itself. H Ilowe\er. prior to print there were m,lIly
other similar outbreaks of heresies. which clearly mitigates any simplistic
one-to-{)ne connection. And certainlv the outbreak of the Protestant Refor
mation cannot he explained without reference to the deterioratillg ecollomic
and social conditions of central and northern Europe. which created an
oppressive and intolerable environment for many. J; As Luke describes. "Be
fore Luther became a figure of public and political interest in 1517. German
hurghers and peasants. artisans and merchants. and many humanist academ
ics shared a feeling of unrest and dissatisfaction with existing social. eco
nomic, and political-religious conditions. amI were ready for a change to
wards what for them promised to he a more just ami Christian society."'"
What could be said with confidence is that prillting had a remlutionary
effect 011 Ihe cxtent to which one particular heresy could spread widely and
rapidly with devastating consequences for the Church's containment strat
egies. In other words, the properties of the printing eln-ironment favored the
interests of the Protestant Reformation to the disadvantage of the Papal hi
erareh\.
Ilow did the Protestant Reformation "fif the printing environment? T\lost
re\"(llutionary was the way that printing afforded an opportunity for one per
son to reach a mass audience in an unpreeedentedly short period of time.
In 1517, the German theologian Martin Luther puhlicized 95 theses in
Latin criticizing a \'ariety of Church practices. centering mostly on the rise
in tithes, indulgences, and benefices. As Dudley notes: "A century earlier,
the issue might ha\'e smoldered for years before breaking into flame. E\'en
then, its effects would have been purely local, as in the case of the followers
of John Huss whose revolt (1419-1436) had been confined to Bohemia."17

Distributional Changes

71

\\'ithin fifteen days Lnther's theses had heell translated into Ccrmall, snm
malized, alld disl'ilJlllul tOl'\TIY part of thc cOIIIII,y,'" Durillg Llllhcr's lifc,
fi\T times as mam' works authored h~' Luther alone were pllhlished than by
all the C,ltholic contrO\Trsialists pnt together. 1'1 Martin I,lither alolle was
respollSihlc for 20 percent of thc approximately 10.000 pamphlet editions
issued from presses in Cerman-spcakin~ territories hetwcen 1500 amI I qO,2o
Illitially. the \'(llllllle increased dramatic<llIy, with Luther's published output
rising frolll 87 prilltings in 1518 to a high of 390 printillgs in 1523. 21 As
Andermn put it, "In effect. Luther hecame the first hest-selling author so
kIlOlI'll::: And of course the rise ill output was not restrieted to that eU1<1
nating frolll I.uther alollc; from 1517-1518- thc first year of the Rcfornw
lion-there was a 530 percellt increase in the production of pamphlcts is
sued frolll Gerlll;1ll spcaking presses.:' Prior the emergence of the printing
em'irolunent, heresies simi\;H in form to the Protcstallt Reforl.uation could
not count on such a quick ignition rate,
There were other W;lyS ill which the printillg ellvironmellt matched the
interests of the Protestallt Reformation. Printing permitted the mass produc
tion of small. cheap pamph lets that favored the Reformer's strategic interest
both in rapid disseminatioll of propaganda. in the form of cheap placards
and posters, and the concealment of heretical printed works from authorities
by both producers amI consumers. Pamphlets were produced in quarto for
mat-that is, made up of sheets folded twice to make four leaves or cight
pages-and withont a hard eO\er. amI were referred to by the Gcrm<ln term
Flugscflrifiell. or "fl~'ing \Hitings."'~ Edwards describes how the pamphlets
were "easily tramported b~' itinerant pcddlers. hawkcd on slreet comers <lnd
in ta\'erns. ad\'ertised with jingles amI intriguing title pages, amI swiftly hid
den in a pack or under elothing when the authorities made an appearance,"2;
Edwards goes on to explain how the pamphlets were "ideal for circulating
a sub\'ersi\T message right under the noses of the opponents of reform,"'" As
the pamphlets did not rcqllire <I I;uge im'estmcnt in eithcr 111,l11pO\\'Cr or
material as did large manuscripts, they \\'ere inexpensive to produce amI
could be turned out quickly to respond illlmediately to the day-to-day battles
of the ongoing religions polel11icsY Although precise estimates arc difficult
to determine. historian Hans-Joachim Kohler figures that the a\'erage [lug
schriftel1 cost about as Illuch as a hen. or a kilogram of beef-certainly not
insignificant. but well within the reach of the pamphlet's intended audience,
the "common man," and much less expensi\'e than the cost of a well-crafted
parchment manuscript.'s

-,
,-

MEDIE\'AL TO

MODER~

'Ii> reach a wider, mass audience the pamphlets and other publications
were printed in the vernacular-the form ibelf a direct clwl1cnge to the
Chmch hierarchy whose power rested on performing an intermediary func
tion belween the \'emacular and sacred Lltin scripts. As Edwards points Ollt.
printing not only helped spread Luther's message, it "enlbodied" it in its \'e~'
form I1\" presenting challenges to doelrine in the \'emacnlar press. 1Q I.nther's
explicit ainl was to Pllt a Bible in e\erv honsehold-an aim tl1<1t W;lS func
tionally complemented by the standardization ami mass production afforded
b~' movable type. One printer alone, Hans Lufft, issued 100.000 copies of
the Bible within forty years between 15H and 1574. '0 Fehne am] i\lartin
cstimate tl1;1t about one million German Bibles were prinlcd before mid
cenhl~. '1 In so doing. printing helped to nndermine the legitimacy of cen
tralized knowledge reproduction by providing the means "by which each
person conld becol\le his or her own theologian."'1 John Ilobbes \note dis
apprO\'ingly how "e\"C~' man, nay. every boy and wench that could read
English thought they spoke with Cod AIllligh~', ami understood what lie
said."H
Fueled by the new means of comnlllllieation, the Protestant Reformation
reached a level of mass support lmprecedented among prior heresies in
Europe dming the f\liddle Ages. A "colossal religious propaganda war" en
sned. in Anderson's words, that would soon envelop the whole of Emope.'"'
1\tthe heart of this war were the cheap, mass-prodnced pamph lets emanating
from the many printing presses that sprouted throughout Emope in response
to the markel created by the religious upheaval. The pamphleteers carefull~'
enlployed a combination of text and illustration to reach as wide an audience
as possible. Devastating, "blasphemous" caricatures im'ariably featming per
Icrse and disfigured representations of eminent Church officials rolled off
the printing press in dro\'es-an often neglected historical delail of the
si\teenth-eentu~' religious propaganda wars made possible b~' the printing
press. lI
Bllt, a skeptic might ask, what about the low literac~' rates in early modern
Emope;> How much weight should we gh'e to the printing press when the
clbility to read am] \nite was still out of reach for the vast majority of people?
\lthough literacy was still relativelv low among most of the lower classes,
the spread of the printed word worked in tandem with traditional means of
'>ral communications in what Kohler calls a "two-step" communications pro
:ess.'~ Evangelical preachers spread by word of mouth polemical works
rreshly issued and/or smuggled in from the I\lany printing houses that served

Distributional Changes

as "nenc centers." \\'e shonld not nm!erestimate, therefore, the extent to

which the illiterate cOllld h;l\T acc('ss to the printed \\"lmlthrongh those that
could read. So \\hile the Reformation was \TrY much an owl process at a
mass Ie\el. it \\'as the \';lSt distribntion of printed material that fneled the
process at the erItci;11 elite 1e\c1.'- 1\ loreo"er. Prolcstantisnl deliberately in
culcated in its followers the importance of literacy and Bible reading, ami
as ;1 ('omeqllenee litcr;lC~ rates I;rew markedh' higher O\cr tinn: ill Prolestant
versus Catholic regions."
While the printing el1\ironment ma~' have f'l\"ored the strategic interests
of Protestantism, it worked against those of the Roman Catholic Chmeh.
Gi\"Cn its exploitation of the printing press, Protestantism was able to take
the eark offemi\c in the polemiC<11 stmgg1cs, with ROl\le oftell being forced
to take the some\dwt desperalc amI futile position of opposing alld contaill
ing prillt ill the name of doclrine. ,\mlerson affirms that the reformers were
"always fundamentall~' on the offensi\e. precisely because l they] knew how
to m;lke IISC of the expalldinE; \TIII<lClllar print-nwrket being created by cap
italism, while the Connter-Reform,ltion defemled the citadel of I,at;n:""
Thlls it \\as Ronle which felt the need to formnlate the Index l,i!Jrorll1ll
Prolrihilorllm of banned prinlcd 1I1<1lcria1.'" I\S Eisenstein notes:
Catholic policies framed at Trent were aimed at holding these new
functions in check. By reiecling \'erIWC11lar \TrsioTls of the Bible, by
stressing la\ obedience and imposing restrictions on lay reading. by
de\Tloping new maehinel\' such ,lS the Index and Imprimatur to chan
nel the (low of likratme along narrowly prescribed lines. the post
Tridentine papae\' prO\n) to be an\"lhing but aecomlllodating. It as
sumed ,m unyielding post me that gre\\' e\Tlmore rigid over the course
of time.""
The Index. continuollsly npdalcd throllgllOllt the sixteenth eentmy and
beyond. had the ironic effect of spmring a markct for the printed material
contained therein by makillg it appc;lI taboo. ami thus e\'enlllore allraeti\"C ."'1
Even prior to the Protestant Reformation the Church had issued decrees
forbidding the printing of books unauthorized by the Papal hierarchy. In
1515 Pope Leo X issued an edict to the Holy Roman Empire "that no license
should be gi\'en for the printing of a book until it had been examined and
apprO\'ed by an authorized representati\'e of the Chureh."",1 By restricting
the publication of unauthorized printed lnaterial ill this way. hO\\c\Tr, the

\11': 1111': \',,1.

7'f

TO \I01ll-: H:\

Chmch's strictmcs crcatcd a lar;c black-market book tradc fcd bv printing

prcsscs houscd in nOll-Catholic rc;ions. H It also rcsulted in slron~ prcssmcs
from Catholic printers who were placed at a severe disalhantage Iw not being
;lhlc to cnter into the newly elncrging market for printed malcrial-espe
cialh thc m,llcrial forhidden hy the Chmch. For example, in 1;24 the prin
ters of Leipzig petitioned their Catholic duke that they \\'ere in danger of
losing "house, home, ami all their li\'ClillOod" bccause they were not allO\\Td
to "print or sell ,1I1ything new that is nwde in \\'illcnhcrg or else\\'here. For
that which one would gladly sell and for which there is demand: they said,
referring to the Protestant liter<1lme, "they arc not ,IIIO\\Td to ha\'e or sell.
But \\'h;lt thc\' h;l\'C in ahundance," referring to Catholic lilcratmc, "is de
sircd hy no one amI cannot be gi\'en away."4' In short. the Church's strategic
intercsts clashed \\'ith the propertics of the newly emerging eonn11lmicatiol1S
cl1\'i rollment.
The way these religious divisions spilled O\'er into the secular parts of the
Christian Commonwe,llth is well-known. Their imp,lct on the architectme
of medieval world order-in particular. the transnational hegemony of the
Rom,m Catholic Church -was dC\.1st'lting. Soon much of Emope was di
\'idcd into competing religious territories-,I chasm that initially corre
sponded with pro- and anti-print factions. As Anderson explains, "nothing
gives a beller sel1Se of this siege mentality th,1I1 Fran~'ois l's panicked 1;3;
h;m on thc printing of
hooks in his realm-on p,lin of death hy hang
ing."46 The Protestant Reformation ripped into the increasingly tenuous cos
mological bind that held Christendomtogclher under;1 single society. While
it is cert;linh- truc that the roots of the Protestant Reformation reach back
hefore the lle\'e1opment of printing, it is unlikely that it would ha\e been as
profoundly consequential in this regard without the change in the com
munications environment. One need only look at the fate of pre\'ious her
esies, like the Hussite, that withered \\'ithout the a\'ailability of printing,
Printing helped to displace "the mediating and intercessionar)' role of the
e1ergv, and C\Tn of the Chmeh itself, by prO\'iding a ne\\' channel of com
nllmication linking Christians to their God." r In conjunction with indi\'id
ualistic push of Protestant ideology, printing weakened the intermediary
function that had huttressed the privileged social position assumed by the
e1ergy. While Protestantism presented a frontal assault on the religious core
of the official Church cosmology, a second discernihle social force was grad
ually underculling it from a more holistic perspecti\e.

anr

Distributiollal Challges

Sc;cntific

7,

HrJIIHl/I;SIII

;\5 ;\nderson and others point out. the early printers represented one of
thc first manifestations in Europe of groups of commercial entreprenems
dedicated to making a profit. 4' COl1Sequently, they were primarily concemed
\\'ith finding markets for their hooks amI printed materials. Once the market
for religious pamphlets hecame satmated, hooksellers needed to find alter
nati\'e outlets for their products. One particular emerging social group yeam
ing for mass-produced printed material at the time was the scientific hu
manist mO\ement. O\'Cr the eomse of the first centmy of printing, a shift
occmrcd in the conlcnt froln primarily I.atin-based rcli~ious themcs to sci
entific hnmanist works \\'rillen in \'Cmacular languages. 4'1 Like the expansion
of Protes!;1I1tism, thc growth of scientific humanism helped to undermine
the anthoritv of the Roman Catholic Chmch by direetly c1wllenging the
cosmology upon which its authority rested. And also like Protestant groups,
social forces in famr of scientific Inmwnism nomished in the newly emerg
ing communications emironment.
Althongh modemist histories of science have tended to portray the emer
genlT of the so-called "Scientific Remlution" as a sharp historical jnnctme
\\'hen the fellers of religious false consciousness were thrown aside for the
wisdom of pme empiricism hya few path-breaking individuals, the roots of
scientific humanism as a social force can achwlh- be traced back to the late
~liddle ;\ges.''' In Ital~' and in northern Emope, the growth of universities,
coupled \\'ith a more hospitable mban setting, furnished the grounds for a
stin1l1Iati1H; intellectual e1l\'ironment characterized by intense debates sm
rounding the rediscO\'er~' of classical Greek and Roman texts.;) At the same
time, latent in European society \\'as a grO\\'ing dissatisfaction with the pre
vailing cosmology for more practical, secular reasons. The Ptolemaic, earth
centered picture of the uni\'erse, supported hy official Chmch doctrine, 110
longer seemed adequate, for example, to the imperatives of ocean na\'iga
tion. which \\'as assuming a more important place as connnerce and trade
expanded. Nor could it be easily squared \\'ith observations of the heavens
made with the aid of ne\\' technical discO\uies - foremost among them the
telescope -that furthered skepticism about its core assumptions.'" Prior to
printing, beliefs that contradicted the official Church cosmology could he
contained with relati\'e success through the same hasic mechanisms, such
as the Inquisition, that held other religious heresies in check. After printing,

"~(I

;\11'.1111" \ ,\1. I () ;\IOIlI-.IC',

11Il\\e\'(~r, it hccallle much more difficult for thc Church to halt the flow of
'hc n{'\\' scicllcc. cspcci;lll~' since sciclllific 11I1IIIallism (like Protesiantisllll
Iwd a strategic illterest in the widespread disseminatioll of knowledge and
illforlllation-all illtcrest that overlapped with that of tlte new printing in
dllSll\,
'(il ullderstallllthe "fitlless" between scientific hUlllallislTl alllithe print
illg cllvirolllllCllt, we lIeed to look hack prior to the ill\'l'ntion of prillting:
to the est,lhlishment of nni\'ersities in the High i\liddle Ages. As outlilled
ill the pre\'ious chapter, the swe II iIIg lIum bers of students and professors
in the I ligh to lall' l\liddle Ages created a markct for hooks that spurred
on the development of "in-house" uni\'Crsity m,lIl11script eop\'ing ccnters
that \\cre not formally tied to the monastic network. This market might ha\'e
relllained limited, howcver, were it not for the introductiOlI of a new sci
encc - animatcd mostly by redisc()\'Cred Aristotelian works - that gradually
refocused intellectual energy on "obsel"\'ation" and critical comparison of
obsen'ations as opposed to pure reAection on traditional wisdom that char
acterized the predominant neoplatonism of the day. q Although the new
"empiricists" propagated the myth that they were "turtling away" from the
dnsty parchment books of the Church Fathers to "pure" examinations of the
"Book of Nature:' we should cautiousl~' amid treating tlte myth, as Eisenstein
suggests, as anything more than a metaphor for the break from religious
ties. q In facl. the printing press significantly fueled the sudden Wa\'e of
scientific illnO\'ation that characterized the sixteellth ami seventeenth cen
hlries by facilitating the rapid dissemination alld exchange of knowledge and
ideas. Contrary to myths, the new science was eriticalh- dependent on the
printed word.
While it is true that the entire printed output contained as much chaff
as wheat (early modern counterparts to the "trash" tele\'ision of today) the
sheer \'()Iume of printed material that could be accessed b~' a single individ
u;II, or groups working cooperatively on a single project, was truly re\'olu
Iionary, especially as it converged with the interests of the new scientific
curiosity. Eisenstein argues that while:

the duplication in print of extant scribal maps and ancient geograph

ical treatises, even while seeming to prO\'ide e\'idence of "backsliding,"
also provided a basis for unprecedented advance.... Before the out
lines of a comprehensive and uniform world picture could emerge,

UlslnhullOllal Changes

77

incolIgruollS imal;cs had to hc dllplicated in sufficicnt quantities to be

hrollght into contlet. cOlllpared, alld cotllraslcd."
ThllS it was not III1COllllllon to find, as Febnc allll l\,lartin poillt ont,
Illany cxamples of prin!cd IIIa!crial that furthcred Inedie\'a\. PtolcJnaie lhe
ories attlte same timc as the lIew scicnces. ;(, But what was revolutioll<Jry was
tltc cOlljullction of a ncw ill!cllcctual mind-sci alollgside thc slldden a III I
dramatic increase in the sheer \'(Ilume of circulating works. COlltradictions
became morc difficlllt to reconcile once Arabists were set alongside Ga
lenists or .\ristotelialls al;aimtl'tolcmaists ill cI sillgle .slud)'.;
There were other \\'a~'s, beyond benefiting from the sheer \'olullle of cir
elll<lting materia\. in which scientific hUlllanism fit the printillg environ
ment. Consider. in this rcspecl.ltow innO\'atiollS new to print-such as cross
referencing and illllexing - functionally IIIa!ched an intellectnal interest in
the s\stematie comparison allll critical e\'aluation of kllowledge that char
acterized the ncw science." The printing environment favored the espril de
srsleme of the age-the desire to catalogue and organize every topic into a
eOllSistent order- b~' permitting the usc of new devices like pagination, sec
tion hreaks, rtlnning headers, title pages, index cards, standardized copies,
and so forth, that would he \'irhwlly impossihle (or at least very difficnlt) 10
undertake without mechanized reprodnction.;'1
~Iore suhtle forms of "fitness" can he found as well. Comider the w,ly
the new sciences' stress on detached anah-tical, "impersonal" moues of re
Aection a III I reasoning henehted hv thc mo\'(' away from the oraltr<1llSmis
sion of ideas, to illlli\'idnalized stuch- of standardized texts.("' Or cOllSider the
way the idea of progress ,md clmlulation of knowledge was encouraged hy
the duplicati\T powers of printing, by the sudden increase in the volume of
circulated material, and by the wav cross-referencing and indexing could
facilitate the "building" and s\nthesizing of existing theories. Multiple re
prints and IlInllbered editiollS made possihle a process of critical feedhack
whereby errors and omissions in an original text could be identified allll
corrected in subsequent editions.~1 By contrast, manuscript deterioration was
a constant problem in medie\'al Europe such Ihat enormous energy was
channeled into the presen'ation and recopying of important texts while
countless others were allowed to drift into obli\ion. Lack of standardization,
localized chronologies, imprecise cataloguing, and oral transmissions can
all be seen as further constraints on the idea of progress and the eU111ulation

7;')

~I

E III Jo: L\ " I () M () Ill'; R:'oj

of knOldedge. \\'ith printing. hm\"(',er. preseryation became lIIuch less of a

Clll1(TrJl sillcc nllllliplc copies cOllld he- made al diminishinl,; cmls. AIHllhc
e-xchan~e and circnlation of standardized texts fm'ored the notion of a pro
gressi"e acellll1l1lation of ever more accurate ideas. Rice elaborates:
Printing ga"e scholars all m'er Europe identical texts to work on. Re
ferring precisely 10 a particular word in a particular line OIl a p,Jrticular
page-, a scholar in Basel could propose an ell1endation which cOllid
be Ii1pidl~' checked by his colleagues in Rome or Florence. From such
correetions and discoveries a critical edition would emerge, to he su
perse-ded hy anolher aIHI yet another until something ,Ipproaching a
standard text had been achieved. h2
The idea that civilization was progressing away frolll error through the
winnowing away of false or distorted theories "fits~ a eommlnlications em'i
ronment where printed material (if not "knowledge ~ per se) was dsihly amI
quite literally accumulatillg. 6l
Like the Reformation, the secularization of knowledge and learning that
e11Sued worked ag,linst Rome's controlled interpretation of Ihe order of
things, gradually m'erturning the medieval cosmolo~' upon which Papal
authori'" deri"ed ils legitimacy. The new communications environment "fa
mre-d~ Ihe- inlerests oflhese two social forces to the disa(h'anlage of the papal
monastic information network. As shown in the pre"ious chapter, this net
work was critical in nwintaining the Church's transnational hegemon~' O\'er
mnch of we-stem I':urope and t1ll1S of the ideological foundation of the me
clieval world order. Working in tandem with .the ideas and interests of the
Protestant Reformation and scientific humanism, printing helped to under
2ut the intermediary and privileged function of the c1er~' in medie"al so
~ie~. opening up the reproduction of knowledge to commercial, secular
IHinters "'hose main concern was nut the dissemination of a particular re
Iigious cosmology, but rather the accumulation of profit. As Curran attests:
The de"e1opment of a lay scribal and print culture alsu undermined
the ideological ascendancy of the Church. The growth of commercial
scriptoria and subsequently commercial printing enterprises made it
more difficult for the ecclesiastical authorities, ',",10 had pre"iously
directly controlled the means of book production, to exercise effective
censorship. The failure of the Church to maintain its domination m'er

Distributional Changes

79

centres of Icarning in the laler Iniddle ages also weukened its grip OIl
Ihe conlcnt of elite culll1le.''
\\'hile the Roman Catholic Church worked frantically to control the new
mode of conlllllmication IIHollgh ce11Sorship and patronage, it was mwhlc
to slem Ihe tide of unforeseen consequellces that wcre ushered in with the
inlroduction ofprinling-a tccl1l10IlJg" il had itselfinitiallyapplamled. With
the de,-clop1l1cnl of printing, the Chl1lch's dOll1inant place in l1lcdieval
world order collapsed. The remainder of Ihis chapter ex,lI11ines the way thc
new Inode of con1l11unicalion f,lcilit<ltcd Ille rise of soci,11 furces that helpcd
conslilllle the n1Odell1 world order.

The Nc\y i'dedi;l Em'ironmcnt ;lnd the Constitution of the

i\ lodern Order
Two social forces "hose interests converged were critical in the consti
tution uf the modem world urder in Europe. One was the emergence uf an
urbcl1/ bourgeoisie conllnilled to conlmercial exchange, contractllal sucio
economic relations, and capitalist entrepreneurship. The emergence of this
particular social force hud wlwl we nlight call a "levcliug" effcct on the
talll,;led parliclIlarisllls of fcnclal social relations, opcning up the possihility
of comnlOn rule from a single center. The IIlere pussibility might have re
mained um!e"e1opcd \\'cre it not for the ",tlues that animated this ncw class
of cntreprenel1ls. \\'lto shared a eollccli"e interest in somc fonn of ccntrali/.cd
rule to satis~' the need for both securi~' and standardization. Cuincidentally,
their interests "'ere met b~' centralizing state monarchs, who were willing to
pro"ide ratiunalized, bureallcmtic administration of internal affairs in ex
change for financing from the urban hourgcoisie to fight extell1al wars. In
this ,,ay. centralized state bureaucracies-a prilnary feature uf modem \\'orld
order-beE,;<1n to emergc frolll the croSS-CUlling, persUlHllized forms of non
territorial rule characteristic of the feudal era.
The literature un the rise uf the modern state in Europe is already well
de"eloped, and it is not my intention here to provide another historical
narrati"e of this process. Debates ha"e raged among theorists m'er whether
changes in milita,,' technologies, population growth, or some other combi
nation "'ere the faclors ultimately responsible for the rise of the modern
state.6' ;\ h focus in this section is different from these studies. I am not

Ko

\I E IJ I E \. A I. TO \10 IJ E R ~

concerned with explaining the roots of the urban bourgeoise ami centralized
fOllllS of mit- as ~oci;11 phenonlen;l. lIor why thev forllled ;111 ;111iance \\ ilh
each other in some regions but not in others. Rather. my concern is to shO\\
the W,ly the printing environment fa\'ored the interests of these two social
forccs where they arose. In doing so. I hope to provide an additional reason
for wl1\' the transformation of world order occurred at this particular histor
ica I juncture.

Fro", Ihe Oalh 10 lire COlltnlet

Socioeconomic relations during the Iligh to late ~Iiddle Ages were ehar
,lcterized by feudalism-that is, ,I hierarchy of personalized, croSS-CUlling
relationships among vassals and lords."" This form of personalized mle
C\ul\-ed out of anciellt Germanic practices in which the oath of allegiance
played a central role in maintaining trust and discipline among warriors. 6
The oath entailed an act of homage whereby one freeman would suhmit
allegiance to another through the ceremonial placing of joined hands be
tween those of the lord, which resulted in a bond of mutual obligation. The
eerelllony was highly personal, as evidenced by the bodily gestures of sub
mission often involving a kiss as well as the \'erbal oath and the joined hands.
signaling the \'assal's allegiance to the lord "by mouth and hands.-6~ Feu
dalism became the dominant mode of organizing socioeconomic relations
following the decline of the Carolingian monarchy in the ninth amI tenth
centuries, and declined dramatically around the sixteenth century. It was
most fully developed in France ami Germany, and least developed in Italy,
where ancient Roman traditions persisted and city life played a more promi
nent role in society.69
Although the oath of allegiance played an important symbolic role in
affirming the social bonds between \'assal and lord. it \\'as more than just a
s)"lnholic gesture insofar as literacy was indeed rare during the High ~Iiddle
Ages and social rebtiollS were in fact primarily ch,nacterized by oral com
munieations.-Il As Le Goff notes. "the feudal system was a world of gesture
and not of the written word."71 The pervasi\'eness of the spoken word in both
a practical and a metaphoric sense o\'er all of feudal society is perhaps best
illustrated. as Clanchy suggests, by the e\'olution of legal procedure. 72 It is
evidenced by the fact that prior to the thirteenth century parties were gi\'en
notice to appear in law courts not by a writ. but by an oral summons which
was puhlicl~' proclaimed by crialores or "criers." Prior to the Widespread use

Distributiollal Challges

HI

of wrillen amI printed doculnents. a grcat deal of importancc W;lS placcd 011
pcrsollal. OJal It'slinl11I1\' as opposcd to \Hillcn dllClIIIICllls, which wcrc slill '
considered untmstworth~. Conseqllentl~'. a pcrSOll wellt before the court to
ha\e ;I "hearing,- One unfortunate byproduct was that the deaf and dumb
appc;n to ha\'C h;ld 110 Icgal righls ill thirlcenth-century 1':nghllld. 7' Wills did
not reI\- on wrillen do("\nll('nts hllt rather persons witnessing the tcst;ltor
making his bequests "with his OWll nlOnth "; they "saw. werc present. am)
hearcl" the trallSaction,-~ Alld of course \\'hat prev;liled in legal procedures
\\';lS a mere reAetlion of socictv at large, For example, business was COll
dUeled. e\'en among Iwscent commercial entrepreneurs, hy word of mouth,
if not solcl~' hecame of tradition and hahit. then certainly because "docu
ments were bound to he relati\'Cly rare until printing made thcir ;lutolllatic
reproduction possible.--' With illiteracy the norm, amI written docu1T1enta
tion rarc. socioeconomic comlllunications in the feud,ll era were over
whelmingl~' oral in nature.
The highly perslJ1wliz,cd owl forlll of rille tl1;1t constituted fcud,d socicty
contrihuted to the complex web of cross-cutting and overlapping lord-vassal
mutual obligatiollS that reached across the territory of Europe. When agree
ments were reached primaril~' on a pcrsonal basis, it should come as no
suprise that the form of those rclatiollShips \'<Hied enof1nollsly from regioJl
to region. If we were to assume the perspective of an aspiring capitalist, the
feudal e11\'iromnent wOllld appear to he highly constraining. Spruyt de
scribes how:
The legal c1inwte was IInfa\'Ourahle for trade gi\'en the IImlerde\"e1
opment of \Hillen codes. the importance of local ellstomary procced
ings. the lack of instrumentally rational procedures, and the cross
CUlling nature of jurisdictions. Economically, coml11eree suffered from
great \'ariation in coinage and in weights and measures and a lack of
c1earl~' defined property rights. TrallSaction costs were high.- r,
Since money as we know of it today was virtually nonexistent, feudal
financial obligations consisted mostly of barter, or in-kind transfers. 77 Legal
affairs were characterized b~' what has been called "banal justice," with each
locality assuming its own legal particularities-a situation encouraged by the
lack of written laws prior to the thirteenth century in most of Europe with
the exception of p;lrts of sOllthem France and Italy.~~ Secular and ecclesi
astical lords llSed their OWII weights amI measures, while many local lords

;')1

MEIlIE\'AI. TO MOilER:\'

minted their own coins-in France alolle there were as 111 a 11\' as ,00
minters.-" All of this particularism was closely houlld up with the personal.
ized, Of;11 form of rule inherent in feudalism, which encouraged represen
tatiolla!, as opposed to abstract, forms of measure, and \'ariation and localism
in socioeconOlllie and legal affairs up until the thirteellth centmy-a point
that will he taken up again in the following section dealillg with nascent
stale bureaucracies. 'II
Of cOllrse there were few capitalists in the Ilil;h t\liddle Ages who would
find any problem with what we now cOllsider to be a high degree of ~trans
action costs: But beginning in the twelfth century, a profoulld economic
transformation took hold resultinl; in what Eric JOIICS calls "the Emopean
t\lir;lele,"'1 From a multiplicity of causes-improvements in agricultural
teelmiques, changes ill climate ;md demographics, the growth of interna
tion;lltrade -economic produeti\'ity rose and grew more cOlJlplex.'~ As Rug-'
gie explaillS, "economic relations became incre"singl~' monetized, and de
\'dopments in 'invisibles: inclnding the great fairs, shipping, insurance, amI
financial services, fmther lubricated conllllerce and helped to create a
European-wide market: 8' Out of this dynamic economic interaction re
emerged many towlIS that had been dorlllallt since ROlllall times. And within
these towns a new group began to coalesce into a coherent social force: the
burghers or tmm dwellers, or what would later be known as the "urban
bomgeoisie." Spruyt astutely points out how few interests these new towns
pcople shared with the clergy and fcudallords who tlni\Td on the old insti
tutions:
Thus, coupled with the rise of the towns, a new set of interests and
ideological perspecti\'es emerged with a new set of demands, The feu
dal order- based on cross-cutting jmisdietions and on ill-defined prop
erty rights and judicial procedures-did not fit the burghers' mercan
tile pursuits, t\I<nket exchange ;l11d trade required abstract cOlltractual
obligations with money as a medium,84
The ideological perspectives and new set of demands to which Spru)'t
refers Aourished as the communications em'ironment began to change. first
with the growth of literacy and the use of written records in the urban centers
of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and then more dramatically and
forcefully with the spread of printing. In fact, one might go so far as to say
tl1<lt the growth of the mban bourgeoisie and the spread of printing worked

Distributional Changes

15,

sp"b;ol;Ccll/\', with each spnrrillg on the de\Tlopmcnt of the other. So while

Anderson is correclto point onlthat capit;llism sci the preconditions for the
widespread dissemination of printed material, the relatiollship bctween the
two is not so eas~' to disentangle as each, in tum, affected the other." For
the rise of capitalism was t'Inbedded in, alltl closely illtertwined with, a
correspondin~ tramformation in the western European mode of comnlll
nicalion, In other words. the shift from ;111 oral to a print culture was also a
shift from the Oelill to the roll Irelcl , with all of the cOlISequences for socio
economic organization that emued. The impersonal bonds of a modern
interdependent ecollOmy-organic. as opposed to mechanical, solidarity in
Durkhei1l1's tenns-could not ht, sllStained on such" \'ast Ie\'el wilhollt ;1
high de;ree of literan' ,111<1 the pemwllency aud reproducibililY of printed
documents.'" "'hile l1<1sc<:nt capitalist entrepreneurs lIIay have found the
oral-m;lI11lscript culture of the late t\liddle Ages to be highly cOllStraining,
the~' thri\Td in the more hospitable printin~ environment. It should cOllie
as no surpri,e, then. that Rice identifies as one of the key f;lclors in "the
astonishingl~' rapid spread of printing" in early modern Europe, the ins<ltia
ble demand for printed products among "merchants, suhstantial artis<lns,
lawyers. gm'eflmlent officials, doctors, and teachers who lived alld worked
in towllS,"'
At the 1lI0st fU1Hlalllental be!' printing fanned the widespread lISe of
what might be callcd social cI!>slrclcl;ollS-bills of sale, deeds. court records,
licellSes. contracts. cOllstitutiom. decrees -that arc the essence of modern,
eontractarian societies, These social <lbstractions could only emerge, as Stock
and Clamln' point out, \\'ith a rise in gener;llliteracy ;nlt! a corresponding
dependence on wrillen docnlllentatioll O\'er strictI v oral eOll1nlllnicatiollS - a
process that began, as pointed out in the pre\'ious chapter, in the High
Middle Ages but was accelerated with the lIlass rcproducibility of printing.~~
Printing helped circulate in its m"n~' forms a standardized medium of ex
change essential for the sen'icing of ;1 complcx division of lahor within the
newly emerging urban-commercial centers of western Europe. Consider, in
this respect. the Widespread usc of printed paper currency as opposed to
melal coins or other tokens in facilitating a standardized mediulll of eco
nomic exehange,'Q Or consider the dependence of the entrepreneur and the
financier on the newspaper, which was an im'ention new to printing.
McKusker and Gra\'esteijn note that "merchants and bankers in the fifteenth
and si"teenth centuries, in their continuing quest for heller ways to speed
the Aow of business news. turned for help to the 1110st recent innovation in

~4

'IEIlIE"-\l, TO MOIlERN

information teclmolog\'. the printing press."'" Thus what might be eonsid

ered tile first forenlliller of the newspaper was a pnblish('(1 exchange ralt'
printed at the I.Hm exehalH;e fairs beginning in the late fifteenth century.
in which the "con to" or fixed exchallge rate was circulated in print for those
allelldillg the fair. Q' The Amsterdam Commodity Price Cnrrent (COl/rs der
Koopl/l(l/lsclrafJpell tot Amsterda 1/1 ) was published illtermittently as early as
15X5. ami weekly beginning in 1609:J~ Other cOlnmercial ami financial
IIcwspapers sprouted throughollt Emope in the se\'entcenth century. in
cluding in Augsbmg (1592), Bologna (1628). Bolzano (1631). Bordeaux
( 16H). Danzig ( 160S). Florence ( I59S). Genoa ( 1(19). Lille ( 1639). Lisbon
(I(JIO), London (160S), L~'ons (1627), Naples (1627). Piacenza (16H),and
Verona ( 1631 ),Q' These newspapers served an essential function in pro\'iding
a standardized publication for the exchange of c0l11lnerciai information,
:\ccording to North and Thomas. the~' ha\'e been found in the archi\'es of
e\'et)' important commercial center in Europe,'H Their presence \\'as both
an indication of, ,Ind a significant factor in. the rapid growth of mban com
mercial acti\'ity in the se\'enteenth cenftlt)'.
At a more practical Ie\'el. both written and printed materials. and the
growth of literacy that lIaturally accompanied them. were indispensahle tools
in the day-to-day routines of the urban bourgeoisie, Indeed. standard ac
counting practices and record-keeping. such as double-entry bookkeeping.
arc practically inconcei\'able in a purely oral el1\'ironment. While douhle
entr\' bookkeeping emerged in Italy prior to the il1\'ention of printing. it was
a prodnet of a high Iy literate urhan populace ami spread rather (Iuickly
throughout Emopean urban eellters once printillg and literacy took root
elsewhere,QI Nor should it be surprising that more ephemeral qualities as
sociated with the capitalist spirit, such as a meticulous rationalism and an
ahstract cogniti\'e orientation. Aourished in precisely those areas where print
iug and literacy initialh- spread the fastest.% As a Illunber of theorists ha\'e
argucd. both writing and printiug famr and encourage an abstract, ratioual
cogniti\'e orientation by arresting the Aow of oral cOI1\'ersatiou. permitting
the comparison and juxtaposition of words and documents. and detaching
the content of comn1tmieatiollS from place, time. and personality,Q- Thus in
those areas where we find a high rate of literacy and a penetration of printed
material, we also find the Aourishing of a highly de\'e!oped commercial
ethos,
Perhaps the best example comes from the United Prm'inces of the Neth
erlands, where literacy was high and printing was enthusiastically exploited

Distributional Changes

1)5

ami encoura~ed 1)\, the Protestant state that W;'lS illcorporated thcre in the
sixlt'enth <:entm\', NOItl1 anrl Thomas note, for example. how the "Illcthods"
of the Dutch merchants lI'ere more sophisticated. amI how the techniques
of double-entt)' hookeeping \\'ere \\'idely taught and had hecome standard
;lccOlmtan<:\' pr;lcli<:es."~ Accordillg to Dudley. it is no coincidence tlwt
nWl1\' of these defining fe;ltmes of capit;llislll-sueh ;lS the stock exeh;lnge
and the nlllltinationa I corpor;ltion-lI'ere origina lIy de\'e1oped in the Neth
crlamls. a region that \las in many ways at the forefronl of the change in the
mode of comllllmic;ltion, As J)1H11c~' cxpbil1S:
The remit for Dutch socicl~' lof exploiting print and literacy to their
fullest] waS;l deeper penetration of market institutions than had existed
in IHe\'iol1S comnlllllities, The examples of the AlIlsterd;lm Exchange
Bank amI the Bourse illmtrate this point. The gre;lt popularity that
these institutions enjm'ed from the moment the\' were founded could
be possible only in a literate socicty familiar with the l1otiol1 that a
written document could be just ;lS \'aluable as gold or silver eoins.'l'i
In SUIll, \lhile the clllergcnce of an mban bomgeois class in early 1lI0dem
Europe \\';lS the product of a multiplieit~, of factors. the soei;ll 1Il00'CllIent
flourished in the new COlll111llllications el1\'ironment. Printing not only func
tion;llly cOlllplelllented llI;lny of the b;lsic routines of the c;lpitalist entrepre
neur. hut more fnndamentally it pro\'ided the me;lns by which soci;ll ;lb
str;lclions could circulate on a \\'ide scale, leading to a cOluplcx di\'ision of
labor. \\'itllOut the standardization and mass-reproducibility affordcd by
printing. it is unlikel~' that such ;l complex penetration of contractual socio
economic relations could hal'e de\'eloped as it did, Certainly the oral
m;l11l1SCript culture of medie\';ll Emope pl;lccd signific;lnt ohst;lclcs ill the
path of capitalist de\'Clopment. Once that el1\'ilOml1ent chal1ged. howe\'er,
a complex s~stelll of contr;lclarian socioeconomic rcl'llions began to thri\'C,
The consequences of this particular distribution;ll change for world order
transformation arc twofold: First, the growth of ;In urban bomgeoisie had
what I earlier called a "b'eling" effect on patterns of political and economic
obligation. at least in urban are;lS. cutting through the entangled webs of
personal lo~'alties characteristic of the feudal era and opening up the possi
bilit\' for common mle from a single eenter.'(~' As Axtmann explains. "The
disintegration of felld;llism at the 'molecular' le\'el of the manor/\'illage re
sulted in the displacement of political-legal power upw;lrds to the 'national'

I',()

MEIJIE\' ..\L TO :'-IODERN

1111

bcl." Thus one of the eentraJ features of medie\'al \\'orld order- mnltiple
and O\'Cflapping bn:rs of pcrsollalized ;1\ltllOrit~'-dissoIH:d alllong ,m ill
crcasingl~' illlportant segment of the popnJation. The oath ga\c wa~' to the
colltract as the h,lSis of earlv modern urban eeollomie relations.
Second. the risc of a bourgeois class directly contrillllled to the celltral
izing dri\'e of state 1l1Onarchs by providing finances for standin~ armics in
retmll for standardized, wtiOlwl adlllinistr,ltioll of legal ,md comlller<:ial pro
ccdures within a Icrritorial sp'lce. 111 Manll's words. the lle\\'I~' emerging
capitalists "cnlered and reinforced a world of emergellt warring \-ct diplo
matically rcgulating states. Their need for, and nllnerahility to. state regu
1;ltion hoth illlcmally alld geopolitically, ,md the stale's nccd for hll,mces,
pushed classes and states toward a territorialh- centr,llized organization."'OZ
III this respect, the rise of the urban hourgeoisie e,1I1 he scen ,IS a trcl/lsitio/la[
distributiollal change illSofar as it not only helped to dissohc the architecture
of medie\'al world order (specifically. feudal socioeconomic relations). but
it also gave positive impetus to, and \\',IS a eonstituti\'e force in. the e1l1er
l;ence of modem world order (specifically. the celltralization/st,1I1dardization
of territorial rule from a single center), The following sectioll takes a look
elt this process from the perspective of centralizing state bureaucracies.

The Emergellce of Modem Centralized State Bureal/cracies

As Garrett f\ lattingly has pointed out. precursors 10 the modern state can
lC tr,lced back r.lr into antiquity.1I11 The first bureaucr,lcy arose ill ancient
)nmCri,1 alongside the de\'c1opmcnt of writing. which. as many ha\c noted,
sa necess,lry precondition for its development. 'fH However. the roots of the
egal allll fiscal systems exclusive to modem state bureaucracies in Europe
late from the c1e\cnth and twelfth centuries and. 1I0t surprisingly. were
'Iosel\' bound up with the reestablishment of secular literac~' and the lay
Ise of writtell dOClllllellts. 1Il1 Of course, secular literaC\' ,1I1d the usc ofwritten
<:xts wcre not solel~' responsible for the rise of the modern stale. 'lCchnieal
nnO\'ations originating in northern Italian communes-such as administra
ion by an impersonal salaried bureaucracy serYing for a limited term and
louble-entry bookkeeping-provided important precursors to the form that
tate bureaucracies ultimately took. 10<\ Certain ideas were also influential in
i\'ing birth to st<Jte bureaucracies in Europe-especially the rediscO\cry of
~oman law, which helped fix the notion of a distinct "publie- realm. w And

Distributional Changes

1{7

landmark treatises - such as Richard Vitmeal's Dialogue 011 tire COl/r.se of

the E.\cheqlll'r. written during the reign of II emy II ( 1154 --II WJ)- hdped
to define the impersonal role of the bureaucratic administr;ltor to the state
as an abstmct entity. I'" 1100\"<:\cr. the preeo11(litiom for ccntralized admin
istratin' rule dcpended not iust on ide;ls. hut '11so. and morc crllcially. on
the technological capacil\' to cam' Ihem ont-a distinC'lh- ahsent fealme of
political authorih for most nasccnt states in medic\'al Europe.
Aspirinf,: medie\;llmonarchs fonnd Ihat their mO\'es toward centralization
were difficnlt to slIstain became of the COllSlr;lints of the prcvailing social,
economic. and politic,11 emironmcnt which. as ollliined earlicr. was over
whelmingI\' cOllstituted by personalized, oral conmll1nications. Thus whilc
we find the shells of modern St,ltes beginlling to den'lop as early as the
twelfth <:entury in eoulltries like England. wherc writtcn administration \\'as
more 'l<h-anced. the norm for the rest of Emope was a ('oustant tension
between the forces of localization amI centr'11ization. Onc reason was that
long-range ,1dministration based on networks of personal or blood tics was
ineffectin: for sustaining cross-generational rule. It had;1 tendcncy to dissolvc
into peth' ficfd0111s \vith local pri\ilege-a pattern that \\as repeated often
throughout the 7\ liddle ;\ges as e\idenced. for example, hy the dissolution
of the Carolingian a11<1 Ottonian d~'lIasticsY'" I\lcdic\',11 political rule. in
Poggi's \\ords. upossessed an inherent tendency to shift the seat of effective
power. the fnlcrum of rule. do\\'nward toward the lower links in thc chain
of lord-\'assal rel,ltions" -a tendency no doubt related to the prevailing
personalized-oral comn1l1nieations em'ironment of the time. lllI Conse
quently. the political map of Europe in the f\liddle Ages \\as dctermined,
according/~' to \Iattingly. not so much "b~' geography, or national cultme,
or historic de\'elopment" as it \\as "b~' the irrelevant accidents of birth and
marriage and death.- III
The complexity In' \\hieh personalized. cross-cuttiug lord-vassal entan
glements took root in the I\liddle Ages made allY attenlpts at centralization
and ration;J! ad111inislr,1tion within a terriloriail y defined space extremely
difficult for nascent states. Prior to the rediscO\'ery of Roman Law, there was
no conception of a distinction between private legal and fiscal prerogatives
of local authorities and that of a public realm. In the case of local lords,
"On land under his jurisdiction. public economy and the fiscal obligations
related to it were identical \\ith the domestic economy of his pri\'ale house
hold."": Raising consistent state re\elllles-especially from one generation

1-1( )

~IEDIE\'''L

TO ~IODER:"

1e\,c1."'"1 Thus one of the central fe,ltures of medie\'al world order-multiple

aIII I O\Trlapping h~Trs of pcr.son:llil.l,d ;Jnthority-dissoh-ed mnon!; :In in
creasinr;ly important segment of the popubtion, The oath r;a\'e wa~' to the
culltreld as the basis of earlv modem urban economic relations,
SecoJ1(I. the rise of a bourgeois class directly contributed to the central
iz.inr; dri\'e of state monarchs by prm'idinr; finances for stamlinr; armies in
return for standardized, I<Itional administration of legal ami commercial pro
cedures within a territorial space. In 1\lann\ words, the nc\\'I~' cmcr~ing
capitalists "cntered ami reinforced a world of emergent w,nring \'ct diplo
matically regulating states, Their need for, and nJlnerabilih' to, state regu
lation both intemallyandgeopolitically.amlthe stale's necd for financcs.
pushed classes and states toward a territorially centralized orr;anization,"l ol
In this respcct. the rise of the urban bourgeoisie can be scen as a trelllSitiOlwl
distribntional change insofar as it not only helped to dissoke thc architecture
of medieval world order (specifically. feudal socioeconomic relations), but
it also gave positive impctus to. and was a eonstitnti\'e forcc in. the elller
genee of modern world order (specifically, the centralization/standardization
of territorial rule from a single center), The following section takes a look
at this process from the pcrspecti\'e of centralizing state bureaucracics,
The Emergellce of Modem Celltredi:::ed State Bureaucracies
As Garrell rvlallingk has pointed oul, precursors to the modem stale can
be traced back f,1I into antiquity.lll' The first bureaucracy arose in ancient
Sumcria alongside the de\'(~lopment of writing, which, as mall\' l1a\'c noted,
is a necessary precondition for its de\'elopmenl.l'H Hm\,e\'er. the roots of the
legal and fiscal systems exclusive to modem state bureaucracies in Europe
datc from the ele\'enth and h\'e1fth centuries and. not surprisingly, were
closely bound up with the reestablislnnent of secular literacy and the by
nse of wrillen documents. In; Of comsc. secular Iitcrac\' and the usc of wrillcn
texts were not solely responsible for the rise of the modern state, 'lccllJlical
innm'ations originating in northern Italian communes -such as administra
tion by an impersonal salaried bureaucracy sening for a limited term and
double-entry bookkeeping-pro\'ided important precursors to the form that
state bureaucracies ultimatelv tookY"" Certain ideas \\'ere also inAnelltial in
giving birth to state bureaucracies in Europe-especially the rediscO\'ery of
Roman law, which helped fix the notion of a distinct "public.. realm.1O" And
Ii

li

Distributional Changes

landmark trcatiscs-snch ,IS Richard Filzneal's Dialoglle Oil the (

the l':,\C[,Cr[lIcr. written dminl.; the reign of Ilellty II (11,4--11 K9)
to dcfine thc impersonal rolc of thc bmcaucratic administrator to
as an abstract clltity.'"s Ilo\\'C\'Cr. the prccomlitions for ccntralizc
istrati\'C rule dcpcnded 110t ;nst on idcas, lJ11t also, and morc Cnt
the techll010!;ical capacity to carry thcm ont-a distinctly abscnt f
political authority for most nascent statcs in medicval Europc.
Aspirin!; mcdic\almon<Hchs found thatthcir mO\'cs toward ccn\'
were difficult to sustaill bccamc of the cOl1Straints of tlrc prcvaili'
economic, amI political em'ironmeut which, as outlined carlicr, ,
whelmingly comtituted by pcrsollalizcd, or;11 conu1Hmica!ions, '1'1.
we find the shells of modcrn statcs beginning to dcvelop as C,ll'
hvclfth ecullm' iu countries like I':ngland, whcrc wrillcn mlminisll
more a(h-anced, thc l10rm for thc rest of Europe was a comlall
beh\'een the forces of localizalion and centralization, Oue rea SOli
long-range adnIinistralioll based on llct\\'orks of pcrsonal or ble){J(
ineffecti\'e for susta ining cross-generationa1rule, It had a tendency tl
into peth' ficfdoms with local pri\'ilcgc - a pallcm thai was repca
throughoutthc f\liddlc Agcs as c\'idcnced, for cxamplc, by thc di
of thc Carolillgiall amI Ollonian dynastics.!"'! Mcdicval politiC<l
Poggi's words, "possesscd an inherenttemlency to shift the seat 01
powcr. the fulermll of rn1c. down\\'ard toward the lowcr links in I
of lord-\assal rclatiom" -a temlcncy no donbt rclated to the I
persollalizcd-oral C011111ll111icatiollS el1\'irolllncut of thc timc,llII
qucntl~, thc political map of Europc ill thc Middle Agcs was dctcl
accordingly to f\ lattingly. llot so much "by geography, or national,
or historic de\'elopment" as it was "by the irrclevant accidcllts of hi
marriagc and dcath,"II)
The complexity h~' which personalized, cross-clll1illg lord-vassal
glements took root ill thc 1\liddlc Ages m;1<le any allcmpts at cen!r,ll
and rational administration within a territorially dcfincd spacc cxl
difficult for llasccnt states. Prior to the rediscO\'CIY of Roman Law, th,
no conception of a distinction beh\'een pri\'ate lega 1aud fisca 1preH'
of local authorities and that of a public realm, In the case of 10c<1:
"On land under his jurisdiction, public ceonomy and the fiscal obli
related to it were identical with the domestic economy of his pri\'ate
hold,"lll Raising consistent state revenucs-espeeially from one gen'

l"'h)

\l1-:1l11-:\',\1.

to

~IOIJER:'\

of leaders to the next-was \'irtually impossible as a I\picalll1edie\'al ruler

"knew the Iota I of neither his income lIor his outgoings" of his clllire do
main. 111 One consequence of this entangled particularism was that kings
who wanled re\TlIlleS from the lands under their jurisdiction regular,," tra\'
eled with a large entourage in order to "COIlSlnne the prodnce of their scat
!cred holdillgs,"II~ And sillce each hOll1mage of lord-\'assal ohligatioll was
entcred illto ;lIll1ilu persollae (that is, persollally) the form of rule \'aried
enormomly from relationship to relationship .md region to region, Accord
ing to Poggi:

the lord's relationship to the uhilnate ohjects of rule, the populace.

\\as medi'lted differently hy each \'assal. The size of the fief. the exact
tenns 011 which it was granted, the rights of rule oyer it that remained
with the lord or that were yested in the \'assal-as these aspects of the
basic relationship varied. so did the modalities and cOlltent of the
exercise of ru le. 111

Nonetheless, hy the thirleenth ami fourteenth centuries state authoril\'

was undergoing, although with occasional sethacks, a gradual process of
consolidation .md eentralization-a kind of "two-steps forward/one-step
backw.ml'" proccss. To be sure, the process was not uniform across all of
Europe. In Germany and Italy, for example, city-leagues and city-stales pro
yidcd alternative "de-eentered" logics of organiz.llion. But elsewhere - in
England, France, and Holland, for example-centralized forms of rule he
gan to displace the feudal system. Theorists dis,lgree on the primary impetus
for this process, or why it finally took hold at this juncture rather than at an
earlier time. Some, such as Tilly, place more emphasis on changes in mili
tary technologies. 116 Others give as much emphasis to population pressures
ami ,m accompanying economic boom. W \Vhate\'er the ultilnate reason, in
those areas of Europe a similar pattern can be discerned: In the context of
an increasingly dangerous em'ironment, an imperative was placed on the
main!cnance of a standing army, and where relc\'ant a war Acct. that could
be summoned by a central ruler. 1I8 The new demands of war necessitated
that these rulers turn inward to maintain domestic stability and order. and,
more imporl;mtly, to find a way to raise constant re\'emles to finance the
war machi ne. 11q Forlunatel~" the state rulers found willing alIies in the urban
bourgcoisie, whose interests in order and rational administration com'erged

Distributional Changes

hl)

with those of the central rulers, Amllwppih' for these statcs, thc ne\\' tOWI1
Inen \\l'IC ahll' ;lIul \\illin!.; to 11I0\ide nl(lI1('\' in the fornl of la,xes ill e)(challl'
for the domestic senices IHO\'ided hy the stale, The specific form tll<1t th
relatiollShip took \';Hied froln stale to sblte. as Tilly and i\lann have doci
11ll'11ted. 1:" But in palls of Enropc from tlte fiftccnlh 10 lltc SC\CnICCII
centuries. the general phcnomenon of modem stale hureancracics nlld
territorialh- di~tiuct. ahsolulist rule began 10 clllergc alld tltrive a~ tltc 11101 1
form of political authority,
\\'hat role did the printin!.; clI\'irolnm'nt play in facilitaling the cmcrgC\1
and succcss of ccntralized fornls of mle lJ\'Cr altemali\'e "de-centercd"lo\"
of organization? i\ lost importanth-, the printing envirolnnent providcd
tools necessan' for sl<mdardized, intergcnerational rule inlhe form of rati
bureaucratic ad1l1inistr'ltion froln a singleccnlcr. Indecd, as pointed
ahO\'C, a necess'H\' precondition for the emergence of burcaucratic adl
istration is some form of writing system. Thus it is not surprising thai
de\'Clopmcnt of modcrtl slate burcaueracics in I':lHopc was closely btl
up with the spread of secular literacy in the High Middle Ages. So in II
regions where litewcy is relatively high, hureancratic sJ>ccializ,ltion an"
\'Clopnlcntlcnds 10 bc nlore a(h-;1l1eed, For example, in the Glse of EngL,
sixtv indi\'idnals were employed in its Chancery in the middle of tltc I,
teenth cenhtr\': b~ tlte fifteenth ccntlH\', more than a hundred were
ployed at the Court of COInmon Pleas alone. III
Of course. pressures for burcaucratization, in turn, dr()\'C secular lill'
and a dcmand for standardized cOlmllllllicatiollS. Early printers werc Ii'
to recognize this market amI. as a result, thrivcd 011 slate connnissiOlI
printed adlllinistrati\'e records. ,\s Feb\Te and Martin point out, stale poL
acti\'eh- encouraged thc creation of large, nalional publishing Ill'
throughout earh' modern Europe,I22 And the printed products email;'
from these large puhlishing centers ill hun increased the size ofbureauci
documentation, which neccssitated yet more specialization and persoll
In Gnenee's words, 'Tlte proliferation of offices ami officials incvilabl}
to a proliferation of the documents without which State action \\ouk
impossihle and on \\hich its power was hased."'"
The 1110st ob\'ious wa\' the new communications em'ironment fan
the interests of centralized state rulers was by facilitating more effecti\T
systematic rewards amI sanctions in the !.;O\'Crtlance of outlying regions, '
ticularly through the standardization of legal institutions and systems n:
reet taxation, As Til"" affirms, "Almost all European gm'ertlments even In

l)U

"EIlIE\'"'' TO 'IOIJER:-.I

took~teps \\'hiell hOlllogenized their popnlations,-I:~ \\lith lIleans of slan

cb,dizct! donnnentalion IHll\ided hy printillg, \tate rulers could effecti\'l'h
cut through and transcend the \'agaries of personalized. feudal obligations
tlwt so often produced discrep'lIleies among loc.lles throughout the I\ing's
dOlllain, III the printing el1\'irolnnent. regularized and impersonal proce
dures could be more effectively established th'lt did not vary o\'Cr a territo
riall~' defined sp;lee or, more illlportalltl~', across generations of rule, As all
illustration. "hetween 1665 ami 1690 I.ouis XI\' prolllulg;lted ordinances
and codes that uniformly regulated over all of France such di\'erse matters
as ei\'il and criminal court procedure. the management of forests and ri\'ers.
shipping awl sailing. and the trade in hlack sl;l\'l's,"I:; In the printing el1\i
ronmen!. re\'elllleS could be collected effieienth- ami eonsistenth-, \\'ith the
result that the size and power of the state. and the effeeti\'eness of centralized
mle, began to grow,
,

The state's interest in standardization (or hOll/ogellizatioll, as Till~ aptl~'

calls it). was closely bound np with a desire not only to lIIore efficiently and
eonsistenth- extract financial re\'Cnues. but also to maintain dOlllestie order
ami security through surveilLJnce of the population and territory-an inter
est that thri\'('d with the a\';Jilability of printing, One of the more compelling
interpretations of the state's inlcrest in sltr\Tillanee is 1\ Iiehel Fouca II It's dis
cussion of the "disciplinarv state,"I:', Foucault argues that in the transition
to the modem state, coercion and O\'ert \iolence as tools for social order
were gradually replaced b\' a more impersonal "micro-politics" of discipline
designed to morally regulate or "normalize" indi\'iduals through institutional
regulation and bureaucratic administration,'2- Though Foucault is more
concerned with the ideas that lay behind this transition. it is easy to see hO\\'
the material instruments of technology at the disposal of centralized state
administrators \\'ere crucial in facilitating this reorientation,l:S
Perh'lps the best example of the way printing helped to empower the
"disciplinary state" is the reproduction of printed llIaps used for administra
tive purposes, As Barber notes with respect to England. 1)\, the sixteenth
century state ministers "came to expect a greater precision in maps than had
their predecessors. and several became more sophisticated in their e\'alua
lion of, and their awareness of the potential uses of. maps for gO\'emment:
He goes on to say that the gO\'ernll1ent of the time "seems to ha\'e shO\m a
growing appetite for printed maps. which \\'ere cheaper, increasingly plen
tiful, and less prone to scribal errors in trallSmission than their manuscript
eounlcrparts,"IN In 1610, a State Paper Office was formalh- established in

Distributional Changes

91

Fllglam\ to hO\1Se the e\"('r-illcrc;lsillg Illllnber of officialm;lps,'lll I ,ikewi~

Buissclct nolo witll respec! to France: "At Ihc time of I,ouis XIV's ;lccessir
Fren('11 gO\erninl; circles possessed a \\'ell-de\'eloped seme of the u~
fulness of maps, and there \\ere cartographers capable of respomlillg to tlH
m.'e(k , , , Ithrough I all abuudauce of pre,sses. mostly eoucclllrated iu Pal
capable of printinl; and diffming large maps in comiderable qualltities,"
For example:
For eeonoulic amI financial plallning. In;lps were cOlnmissioned to
shO\\' \\here the \'arious fiscal di\'isions. or gencralitcs, rail. and \\'herc
specific taxcs like lhc gahclle (salt tax) \\Tle 10 bc paid, , , ,Othcr Inaps
\I'ere ordered whell great puhlic works like the caual du rvlidi were
being plauned: this calla) had a \cry rich cartography a\sociatcd with
it. Othcrs, ;I(;ain, \\Trc couunissioued to show the sites of the In;nes
in Frallce. or the (];llure and extent of its f(1 rcsts,11 2
:\nother e\;lnlple of the \\'a\' the printiug c11\'iromncnt flleled the di~
plinarv state \\as ill the area of public cducation. as Luke in particular I,
ShOWlI,lll Comider in this respect thc \\'a~' thc printiug ell\'iromneut fan)[
standardized public "exam illations" through \\'hich each im1i\'idual "
compelled to pass, helping to create .1 clnnulati\'C, imli\'idual "archive"
persons undcr the slate, Lnkc notes hO\\ "Printing euabled the 'power
\Hiting' to beco(l1e uni\Trsalized and standardized; teachers like waHIt
examined. e\'aluated. recorded. amI describcd those in their charge acco:
ing to standardizcd (administrali\T) forms bascd on underlying c1assi fical!
eriteria: 11 These standardized. printed exal11in;ltions helped to instill a sel
of rank in the population \\'hich, as Foucault describes, defined "the gr'
fOrln of distribution of indi\'idnals in the education order. , , , an alignnH
of age groups. one after another; a succession of subjects tanght and <\\1
tions treated, , :11 1 In this \\';1\', standardized Jlnblic cdncatioll ill the f()l
of printed school textbooks and prillted school ordinanccs sen'ed the di~
plinary interests of the state. \\'hieh promoted a uniformity of belief an1(1
the population th rough compu Isory sc hooling of the young,l 'r,
In Slll1l. the 11l00'elllent to\\'ard 11l0dern state bureaucracies, which beg
in the High ;-.. Iiddle Ages. was fa\'Ored by the change in the mode of co
munieation. first \\'ith the gradual increase in secular literacy and then, me
dramatically. \\ith the introductioll of printing, Printing fueled the stratl'l
interests of nascent centralized state bureaucracies by prm'idillg the me;1

l}2

\IFI>IE\',\I, 1'0

\I(lIJFR~

In' whith stmdardized docu1l1ents-from school texthooks. to public ordi

nalllTS alld fistal rcgnlaliom. to II1;)PS of thc rcalnl-could bc Inass rcplO
duccd allll disscminated. In this wa~'. printin~ prm'ided the tools 1)\, which
celltralizin~ rulers could promote homogenous policies across territorialk
dcfincd spaccs allllthus dissoln' the cross-cullillg allll mTrlapping iurisdic
tio11S tharactcristie of the medie\'al world order. As printin~ prm'ided a
1I1c,n1S to mass-reproduce documellts at lillie cost. a s~'stem of intergellera
tiollal rille conld be cstablislled. thus freczing thc tendenc\' that had bccn
repeated th rough out the ~ Iiddle Ages for centra Iized ru Ie to wit her followi IIg
the dealh of inAuential personalities, ~loreO\'Cr. altemati\'C forms of extant
politital authority that lackcd a single. celltered form of mle-the Italiall
city-states ,md the German cit\'-Ieagues. for ex;nnple -could not bellefit
from lhe printillg ell\'ir0l1l11cllt to the same extent as did centralized state
burc;nlcracies, P- As a result. the succcss of thc centralized state bureaucratic
s~'stem of rule became the model of political authorih' for modern Europe
as "'hole.

In this chapter I ha\'e dcscribcd ho\\' the illtroduction of printing ill me

die\'al Europe brollght about specific distributional changes that e1l1powered
eert;lin aelors and social forces at the expense of others. ~ lost immediatek
affected by the alkent of printing was the transnational autllOril\' of thc
Roman Catholic Church. which had C01l1e close to establishing a theocratic
papal go\'ernment o\'er much of western Ellrope in the High ~ liddle Ages
based on a 1I1onopoly of the reprodllction of knowledge. The Church's pre
elllineni positioll in medie\al world order was undercut by forces ",hose
strategic interests coincided with, and were augmented b\', the alhent of
prinling-the Protestant Reformation and scientific hunwnisnl. The new
communic;ltions c11\iron1l1ent fm'ored the interests of thesc two social fortes
by permilling the mass reproduelion and Widespread transmission of ideas
outside of the papal-monastic nctwork. The Church's interests. on the other
hand, were significantly disalhantaged b~' the change in the mode of com
Inunication. as e\'idenced 1)\, its explicit condenmation of the printing press
once its fllll potential had been unleashed.
The chapter also explored the wa\' in which distributional changes as
sociated with printing helped facilitate constituti\e features of modern world
order: specifically. contractarian socioeconomic relations among the new

Distributional Changes

93

urban bourgcoisic. and modcrn statc burcallcracics, Thc prinling cll\'iroll

mCllt fa\orcd thc dcmallds of cOlltraclariall socioctollonlic rclaliom by PCI
milling the widcspread llSe of social abstracliollS crucial to 1l1Odern, inlcr
dependent Cl'OIlOlnies, This particular social force was \'ital to till
dc\'Clopmcnt of modcrn political rule imof;u as its illtcrcsts in stalldardil:1
tion ami ordcr tOl1\Tr~ed with thosc of ccntralizing state monarths, "Il(
\\Tre willing to prm'idc dOlllcstic stabi1it~, in t'\changc for the ability 10 extral'
rC\TI1\ICS tllfollf;h Iaxcs, Thc capabilitics of printillf;-cspccially thc Ilia,
reproduction of standardizcd doculncllts-:r!so cmpowcrcd tire disciplina,
state. which had a \Tsted interest in both thc homogenizatioll of the pOpl1
lation and the stalldardizatioll of adlllinistralion, Althollf;h Ihcsc distrilJII
tional thanges \\'Cre crncial in the mcdie\'al-to-moderll trallsformatioll ('
world ordcr. thc\' do not tell the whole story, The nt'\t chaptcr cxplorcs th,
rclatiol1Ship bCl\HTII thc challge ill thc Inodc of COlllllllll1ication alld I'"~
transformation of social epistemology,