[governance] Re: [bestbits] Three NETmundial submissions launched for endorsement at bestbits.net

[Pranesh Prakash]

Jeanette Hofmann <jeanette at wzb.eu> [2014-03-08 6:44:03]:
>> Conversely, since there is considerable interest here in
>> multistakeholder policy making, even at national levels, would you
>> support pharma companies, for instance, sitting in bodies making -
>> actually making - health and drug policies, and big publishers in
>> education policy making, and so on...
>
>
> The problem is that the pharmaceutical companies have been doing this
> for decades - but behind closed doors. National legislation is not done
> without consulting with industries affected. Sometimes, particularly on
> the EU level, they even write the draft legislation. Multistakeholder
> offers the chance to broaden the consulation process and bring this
> process in the open daylight so that everybody can see what has been
> going on in secret.

I don't see how "multistakeholder" models offer that chance rather than 
having a transparent process of legislating, including having 
green/white papers, public consultations, making the responses to the 
consultations public, requiring statements of interests from bureaucrats 
and legislators, having watchdog bodies, having research staff, having 
an ombudsman body for receiving complaints about corruption, etc.  One 
can have all of this without "multistakeholder decision-making processes".

Of course, if we're equating a open and consultative process with 
"multistakeholder" model, then we're in opposition; we would have a 
disagreement about vocabulary, though.  At the end of the day, 
businesses are accountable to shareholders alone and academics are 
accountable to their institutions alone, while democratic governments 
are, at least in theory and often in practice, accountable to the voting 
public.

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
-------------------
Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash

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