[governance] What this debate is really about

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

The red cross has no authority to perform its services?  I am sorry but you
will find that you are mistaken

 

National red cross bodies tend to have specific roles, and are governed by
an international convention (the geneva convention among others) .. such as
this one for the American Red Cross - 

 

http://mowercounty.redcross.org/AboutUs/charters2.html

Unlike other congressionally chartered organizations, the Red Cross
maintains a special relationship with the federal government. It has the
legal status of "a federal instrumentality," due to its charter requirements
to carry out responsibilities delegated to it by the federal government.
Among these responsibilities are: 

*	to perform all duties incumbent upon a national society in
accordance with the spirit and conditions of the Geneva Conventions to which
the United States is a signatory, 
*	to provide family communications and other forms of assistance to
members of the U.S. military, and 
*	to maintain a system of domestic and international disaster relief,
including mandated responsibilities under the Federal Response Plan
coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). 

In fact it is a classic case of an organization that has specific, even
chartered and mandated, roles, but still remains essentially civil society
and multistakeholder in nature (so that the .org gTLD it has for its domain
is entirely appropriate).    Oh, quite a lot like ICANN in fact except that
ICANN is a US government chartered institution that later grew to include
international stakeholders, including governments (gac), civ soc (ncuc) etc.

 

                suresh

 

From: Guru [mailto:guru at itforchange.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 7:58 AM
To: Lee McKnight
Cc: dogwallah at gmail.com; governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: Re: [governance] What this debate is really about

 

thanks Lee

While I agree with your point that the distinctions amongst the groups is
itself dynamic, the Red Cross analogy seems a bit too stretched. 

Performing relief services is not a governance function by itself, since Red
Cross has no authority to perform its services. (In contrast ICANN has the
authority to approve gtlds etc). Also a voluntary tax is an oxymoron.

In my mail too, I have mentioned that we are moving towards new worlds where
the distinctions between the governed and those governing will blur/become
more complex (that the IGF itself a process in that direction). But there is
no ambiguity in my mind about ICANN not being CS at this point in time for
the reasons I have mentioned. 

Also I think global governance issues are very complex, I am not quite sure
if the movement we want is of ICANN to become CS, or for IABs to develop
(better) accountability structures as governing institutions to those they
govern (meaning keeping the distinction between the governed and governing
transparent), rather than compromise on these under the ambivalence of
becoming 'participatory' etc etc. 

regards,
Guru

Lee McKnight wrote: 

Guru,
 
Not to get too pedantic (probably hard to do on this list) but poli sci
theory includes large literatures on 'voluntary associations' and
interest group politics, who do govern themselves, and in the case of eg
standards organizations, can make decisions that have wide effects on
industry, government and society. We could get into corporatist and
neocorporatist theory here too, but ok now I am getting too pedantic.
 
In sum, there may be global Internet governance institutions that are
closer, in both philosophy and objective, to civil society, and others
further removed. I for one would be delighted if ICANN, ISOC and IETF
etc were to wish to identify more closely with civil society, and see no
case in the literature for excluding them a priori. For example the
International Red Cross - performs (governs) critical emergency
functions, is organized as an international organization, is closer or
further removed from the government in specific nations - but we would
not exclude the Red Cross in spite of its 'voluntary tax' in times of
emergency powers - from civil society. Right?
 
Lee
 
 
Prof. Lee W. McKnight
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
+1-315-443-6891office
+1-315-278-4392 mobile
  

guru at itforchange.net 05/26/08 10:06 AM >>>
        

 
 
  





-- 
____________
Gurumurthy K
IT for Change,Bangalore | www.ITforChange.net
Bridging Development Realities and Technological Possibilities
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