<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi Parminder,<div><br></div><div>Late to the party, I recognize there's been back and forth on this, but would just like to interject a small suggestion.</div><div><br><div><div>On Apr 13, 2009, at 5:06 AM, Parminder wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><p class="MsoNormal">As the Internet becomes a key factor of reorganizing our social structures, and doing so at a global level as never before, democratic global governance of the Internet is a pressing imperative. Its present governance structures grew out of certain historical contexts, as well as of some new socio-political realities around the Internet. In the context of rapid changes that the Internet has wrought, the key and emerging issues related to its governance, and the correspondingly legitimate governance arrangements, could not have been anticipated by anyone. One thing however is clear by now; the Internet is not just a technical artifact, requiring technical governance with regard to keeping it running smoothly, but a key socio-political phenomenon requiring participative political governance by all people of the world, who are all implicated.<span style=""> </span>However, the direction we move in from here depends on where we stand. It is important to analyze the needs of evolution and internationalization of IG from these dual standpoints.</p></div></blockquote></div><div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">On Apr 14, 2009, at 3:48 PM, Parminder wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><br><br>Milton L Mueller wrote:<blockquote cite="mid:75822E125BCB994F8446858C4B19F0D7705BAD7E@SUEX07-MBX-04.ad.syr.edu" type="cite"><div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="092225013-13042009"><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial" size="2">There is another, deeper problem with Parminder's formulation. When we talk about "participative political governance" we need to explicitly recognize that "democratic" governance must always take place within a framework of protected rights of individuals. Majorities can be as oppressive as unaccountable tyrants, we all know. So while I prefer Parminder's reference to "participative political governance by all people of the world" to vague references to "multistakeholderism" I think that will sound threatening to many people unless we also make it clear that such governance is limited and contained by rights and freedoms _from_ governance in the appropriate areas.</font></span></div></blockquote><br>I very much agree with the substance of your posting. However, when I mention 'democratic' in the title itself i think it obviously includes the nunace and evovled meaning of democracy as generaly understood - which included constitutionalism (that is why we advocate for adopting Internet rights and principles), human rights, structured participation etc - it is not about simple tyranny of numbers.</div></blockquote><br></div><div>The title, "Democratic internationalization of IG," would seem to suggest that some mechanisms of IG are not at present sufficiently democratic, ergo we're advocating DI. Wouldn't it be helpful for us to specify which mechanisms we are talking about rather than leaving it abstract, and what exactly democratic would mean in these contexts? The latter is of course quite a conundrum in all discussions of global governance; the WSIS principles' invocation of the term is hardly a source of philosophical clarity (at the time the background concern was to increase the role of the ITU, which sort of conflated multilateralism with democratic); the WGIG couldn't figure this out and gave up; and not everyone would necessarily understand the term as you define it above.</div><div><br></div><div>Can we be more precise on what we would all be contending with this proposal?</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Bill</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">***********************************************************</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">William J. Drake </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Senior Associate</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Centre for International Governance</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Graduate Institute of International and</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> Development Studies</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Geneva, Switzerland</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:william.drake@graduateinstitute.ch">william.drake@graduateinstitute.ch</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">New book: <i>Governing Global Electronic Networks,</i></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://tinyurl.com/5mh9jj">http://tinyurl.com/5mh9jj</a></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">***********************************************************</div></div></div></div></div></div></span></span></div></span> </div><br></div></body></html>