<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">Wolfgang, Milton Mueller spoke of a "jurisdiction." <BR>
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My dictionary defines that as 1. a legal power to hear and make determinations of cases, 2 . an authority or sovereign power to govern, control or legislate, 3. a sphere of authority.<BR>
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And Milton speaks of a "global jurisdiction."<BR>
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What could that possibly be but an international court, if not an authority to govern on a global scale?<BR>
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There's no way any of that could be anything but governmental.<BR>
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Civil society people have fallen into a kind of anarchists' mentality in which they imagine they can escape the authority of governments. It's playing with fire because it just won't happen. What will happen is governmental or intergovernmental assertions of authority -- jurisdiction, if you will. And Milton Mueller is willy-nilly helping to create a conceptual framework for such authority to be asserted.<BR>
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I reckpon that a multi-stakeholder authority is bound to turn into a mechanism in which non-governmental elements are simpy coopted into legitimizing governmental authority. It's a little like all the self-regulatory bodies privatized executors of governmental functions. And then there's the the latest approach, less than a decade old, of co-regulation. That's when distinctions between private and public break down completely, and non-governmental elements join up with governments. That used to be called corporatism, the political theory of Italian-style fascism.<BR>
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A little realism is called for. Messy disorderliness allows freedom in the interstices. Attempts to create order lead straight to assertions of authority. It's unlikely to be the authority of civil society colleagues who share one's values. It will more likely be the policeman's esthetic sense of what constitutes order -- nothing allowed out of line. I would have thought that you, Wolfgang, would be amongst the first to understand how that is likely to work. <BR>
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The libertarian approach must include a fine sense of when to leave well enough alone. Probably the worst outcome for Milton would be that he actually gets what he says he wants.<BR>
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Regards, Rony</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"></FONT><BR><BR><BR>**************<BR>It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & Finance.<BR> (http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001)</HTML>