Telecommunications policy learning: the case of the FCC's computer inquiries

Abstract

During the last fifteen years there has been a growing body of scholarship utilizing social learning theory to explain policy change. While the adaptation of learning theory to the study of policymaking has been an evolutionary process, some core tenets have emerged. Social learning is distinguished from other theories by (1) the importance it places on state actors and (2) its focus on the role of ideas in the policy process. In this essay, social learning theory is applied to several cases of US telecommunications policy-making. More specifically, this paper focuses on the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to come to grips with the growing technological interdependence between the telephone and computer industries between 1965–86. During this period, three major rule-makings, collectively referred to as the “computer” inquiries, were undertaken by the agency. Following a discussion of social learning theory and a general overview of US telecommunications policy, the three computer inquiries are examined in depth through an analysis of government documents and secondary sources. It is concluded that the historical data presented here confirms a pattern of social learning across the three cases.