[governance] Four legs good, two legs bad

[Milton Mueller]

Hi, Louis!

>>> pouzin at well.com 12/13/2006 11:34 AM >>>
>Some of what Milton says applies as well to the phone system:
> basically "it's a service, not a physical commodity". However, 
>unlike the internet, "its architecture, resource assignment and 
>administration are" .. not unilateral.

Right, telecoms is a service. Indeed, as we all know internet relies on
telecom facilities. Unlike the Internet, numbering and signaling
resources were developed and controlled nationally. So global governance
is multi-lateral, although most of the industry is now transnational due
to the WTO BTA. 

I don't think anyone here thinks that I or IGP are defenders of
unilateral control. Certainly no one in the USG does! 

Multilateral means state-to-state, exclusively. I favor a greater level
of devolution, to the transnational level under a global governance
regime that has some autonomy from nation-states. Public accountability
should not be confused with subordination to nation-states.

>"Changing this would require a huge shift in political, economic and 
>technical arrangements". Ahem, wasn't this the P&T song in the 70's ?

It was, and it did, and it was made better. Bear in mind that ITU
initially was a huge barrier to liberalization, and only got religion
after it was bypassed by the WTO.

>"and it is not clear that this would make things any better 
>and a number of reasons to think it would make things worse". 
>For some, perhaps ? Established power structures always say that.

Tell me how throwing the internet into a traditional multi-lateral
power structure controlled by nation-states would make things better.
Feel free to make your case. I'm all ears.


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