On Public Forms of Competition

Abstract

Competition is among the few social-scientific concepts clearly associated with the transparency discourse—obvious today when a myriad of public “ratings” and “rankings” evaluate states, universities, and other actors while often claiming to advance the transparency of those actors and their performances. This article deals with this association from a historical-sociological perspective. It argues that public rankings and similar discursive devices not only symbolize competition but also create and reproduce it, creating what is called here, “artificial zero-sum games.” On this basis, it also makes the case that a more sophisticated conceptualization of public forms of competition draws attention to a long-term historical trend, the beginnings of which can be traced to the 19th century. The argument is presented in two steps: In the first part, a sociological model of public forms of competition is proposed that combines classical sociologist Georg Simmel’s concept of “indirect” and “pure” competition (= competition as a struggle for the favor of a third party) with insights from communication theory, market sociology, media, and globalization research. This model implies that public communication processes create competition by imagining an anonymous audience that enables this kind of competition through its very indefiniteness and anonymity. Thus “publicity” or “publicness,” rather than “transparency,” seem to be the more adequate terms to conceptualize these forms of competition. The second part discusses historical-sociological implications of this model, analyzing competition between nation-states (and national collective identities) in the light of recent globalization research, claiming and describing three trends—toward competition for modernity prestige, specific cultural achievement prestige, and attention/legitimacy —since the late-19th century.

The constitution and effects of country images: Theory and measurement of a central target construct in international public relations and public diplomacy

“…Especially for smaller countries that cannot heavily rely on political and economical power to defend national interests in a global context, the 'soft good' of their esteem plays a central roll in its long-term political, economic, and cultural success (Werron 2014).…”

“…In times of globalization and mediatization, the image a country projects is becoming more important because countries are increasingly observed by international organizations, media, and publics, they are publicly rated and compared according to their economic development, their political stability, the effectiveness and morality of their national and international policies or the attractiveness of their culture (Werron 2014).…”

“…Political leaders are increasingly concerned about their country's esteem abroad (Kunczik 2003;Price 2003;Werron 2014) and practices of communication management are widely applied on the level of the nation-state system (Dinnie 2008;Dyke, Vercic 2009;Kunczik 1997;Snow, Taylor 2009). One such example is Switzerland, which on the basis of a "Federal Act on the Promotion of Switzerland's image abroad" launched a separate unit in its Federal Department of Foreign Affairs that "supports the protection of Switzerland's interests by using various public relations tools" with a yearly budget of over 9 m. USD (FDFA 2014).…”

“…In times of globalization and mediatization, countries are increasingly observed by global media and publics: They are rated and compared according to their economic development, political stability, effectiveness and morality of their national and international policies or the attractiveness of their culture (Werron 2014). Research shows that the country image, as "a stakeholder's attitude towards a nation and its state" , has manifest effects on the success of a country's businesses, trade, tourism and diplomatic relations because it affects the behavior of central stakeholders abroad (Jaffe, Nebenzahl 2001;Kotler, Gertner 2002;Sun 2008;Tapachi, Waryszak 2000).…”

The 4D Model of the country image: An integrative approach from the perspective of communication management

“…Political leaders are increasingly concerned about their country's esteem abroad (Kunczik, 2003;Price, 2003;Werron, 2014) and practices of communication management are widely applied on the level of the nation-state system (Dinnie, 2008;Kunczik, 1997;Snow and Taylor, 2009;van Dyke and Vercic, 2009). One such example is Switzerland, which on the basis of a 'Federal Act on the Promotion of Switzerland's image abroad' launched a separate unit in its Federal Department of Foreign Affairs that 'supports the protection of Switzerland's interests by using various public relations tools' with a yearly budget of over 9 m. USD (FDFA, 2014).…”