[governance] rights based approach to the Internet

[Avri Doria]

Hi,

not that i want to get n the middle of this 20th century argument, but  
i read an interesting line in a letter to the Editor of the Financial  
Times today (oh no, what am i admitting) by Giulio Tremonti (an  
Italian politician - don't know what his role is thse days) in defense  
of accusations of protectionism:

"market if possible, state if necessary"

Now i don't now if i agree with much of what he says, as his letter is  
all i have ever read of his, but this seems to be a reasonable  
position at first blush.

And in today's world it looks like the market is being effective in  
some places, but some places need more help then the market is likely  
to give.  And since (fortunately or unfortunately depending on your  
viewpoint) we have states and collections of states and associations  
of states ... , they might as well be asked to do something useful for  
the people.

a.



On 16 Apr 2008, at 11:47, Michael Gurstein wrote:
> No, what we're dealing with in your case is a kind of incantatory  
> anti-market fundamentalism, something that folks in civil society  
> should have moved beyond in 1991 1930, if not sooner. But old habits  
> die hard, which is why I make an issue of it on this list.
>
> I'm perfectly willing to entertain policy market interventions in  
> the market in support of public policy goods when beneficial. But  
> let's I'll give competitive markets and liberal policies their due;  
> they've produced dramatic expansions in access and will continue to  
> do so if handled right. Be intelligent about when you need to  
> intervene, and how, and when you don't. That's all.
>
> And to anticipate the inevitable incantation that markets don't do  
> everything or aren't perfect, well, yeah. Who said they were?
>
> (well I guess we are closer to consensus than I figured after all ;-)
>
> MG
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Milton L Mueller [mailto:mueller at syr.edu]
> Sent: April 16, 2008 3:18 AM
> To: McTim; governance at lists.cpsr.org; Michael Gurstein
> Subject: RE: [governance] rights based approach to the Internet
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 2:56 AM, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com 
> >
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >  The problem Milton (and McTim) is that I don't think anyone
> believes in
> > > that kind of incantatory market fundamentalism
>
> No, what we're dealing with in your case is a kind of incantatory  
> anti-market fundamentalism, something that folks in civil society  
> should have moved beyond in 1991, if not sooner. But old habits die  
> hard, which is why I make an issue of it on this list.
>
> I'm perfectly willing to entertain policy interventions in the  
> market when beneficial. But let's give competitive markets and  
> liberal policies their due; they've produced dramatic expansions in  
> access and will continue to do so if handled right. Be intelligent  
> about when you need to intervene, and how, and when you don't.  
> That's all.
>
> And to anticipate the inevitable incantation that markets don't do  
> everything or aren't perfect, well, yeah. Who said they were?
>
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