Factors affecting parental control over children's television viewing: A pilot study

In the pre-divestiture era, the regulatory environment in the US was fairly uniform and harmonious with the FCC setting the course and the PUCs making accommodative changes. The divestiture fractured this monolithic system as it forced the PUCs to respond to new forces unleashed in their own backyards. Within this new environment, there is considerable disparity among the PUCs in their ability to implement new ideas. This paper seeks to understand, via a comparative study of local telephone competition policy making in Arkansas and New York, the structural factors that influence PUCs' ability to introduce new ideas into their states.