[governance] Way forward

[Avri Doria]

On 17 nov 2005, at 10.17, Vittorio Bertola wrote:

> carlos a. afonso ha scritto:
>
>> Hi Vittorio,
>>
>> Not clear to me at all. The logic you propose would be: you are in  
>> the
>> caucus until you have a clear position on the subject, and then  
>> you get
>> out of it and form a like-minded group to defend your position?
>>
>
> Actually that's not my logic, it's an idea that I've heard floating  
> here
> among some caucus members. I am all in favour of keeping this as the
> "container of civil society participation", but then everyone has to
> realize that some changes - in mindsets, before than in processes -  
> are
> necessary to make it happen.


while there may be discussion among some people of starting something  
new in addition to the caucus, i do not believe your characterization  
of their efforts is necessarily correct.  i am also not sure about  
mindset changes.  but perhaps i don't know what that means.  i think  
a caucus and a wg have different functions, and we may need both.

if the caucus remains a place where decisions are difficult to make,  
then it may make sense for people who want to focus on specific  
issues and work within a set of scoping rules to go off and start a  
working group to do just that.  that doesn't mean that the caucus as  
a conversation place would not still continue on, it just means that  
those who want to produce text, without pretending to represent  
anyone except for the group, could do so.  and that group would gain  
legitimacy based on its output and not on its claim to democratic  
representation.

on the other hand if the caucus can come up with a decision  
procedure, e.g. a way to vote, then maybe the caucus remains viable  
as both a place for discussion and a place for reaching decisions  
that have caucus legitimacy.  I think it is possible, but the details  
of how such a transformation would work are difficult.  there are  
many forms of democracy and all of them have their degree of  
legitimacy.  One that work in some places in rough consensus, but  
that does not seem to be the case here.  So what form of democracy  
would work for this caucus?

Currently I don't know.

a.
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