Technology Policy Maneuvers Amid Hegemonic Pressures: The Digital TV and Radio Spectrum Policy in Argentina

Abstract

The article posits that the concept of technology policy maneuver helps to understand the different ways in which peripheral states may respond to the inducements and pressures of hegemonic powers to pursue a particular technology policy choice. Technology policy maneuver may or may not have a direction of alignment with the hegemon's preferences, depending on the state's foreign policy orientation and the existence of countervailing inducements and pressures by foreign states and related interest groups that offset those imposed by the hegemon. Moreover, the intensity of the policy state maneuver depends on the presence of a link between the country's foreign and national technology policies. This article illustrates technology policy maneuver by undertaking a comparative examination of three telecommunications policy choices made by different Argentine administrations—a digital TV standard, 5G, and Wi-Fi 6. These examples shed light on the kind of agency Argentine policymakers had amid hegemonic inducements and pressures.