[Fwd: [governance] Workshop proposal - Internationalisation of IG

[William Drake]

Hi Parminder,

Late to the party, I recognize there's been back and forth on this,  
but would just like to interject a small suggestion.

On Apr 13, 2009, at 5:06 AM, Parminder wrote:
> As the Internet becomes a key factor of reorganizing our social  
> structures, and doing so at a global level as never before,  
> democratic global governance of the Internet is a pressing  
> imperative. Its present governance structures grew out of certain  
> historical contexts, as well as of some new socio-political  
> realities around the Internet. In the context of rapid changes that  
> the Internet has wrought, the key and emerging issues related to its  
> governance, and the correspondingly legitimate governance  
> arrangements, could not have been anticipated by anyone. One thing  
> however is clear by now; the Internet is not just a technical  
> artifact, requiring technical governance with regard to keeping it  
> running smoothly, but a key socio-political phenomenon requiring  
> participative political governance by all people of the world, who  
> are all implicated.  However, the direction we move in from here  
> depends on where we stand. It is important to analyze the needs of  
> evolution and internationalization of IG from these dual standpoints.
>


On Apr 14, 2009, at 3:48 PM, Parminder wrote:
>
>
> Milton L Mueller wrote:
>>
>> There is another, deeper problem with Parminder's formulation. When  
>> we talk about "participative political governance" we need to  
>> explicitly recognize that "democratic" governance must always take  
>> place within a framework of protected rights of individuals.  
>> Majorities can be as oppressive as unaccountable tyrants, we all  
>> know. So while I prefer Parminder's reference to "participative  
>> political governance by all people of the world" to vague  
>> references to "multistakeholderism" I think that will sound  
>> threatening to many people unless we also make it clear that such  
>> governance is limited and contained by rights and freedoms _from_  
>> governance in the appropriate areas.
>
> I very much agree with the substance of your posting. However, when  
> I mention 'democratic' in the title itself i think it obviously  
> includes the nunace and evovled meaning of democracy as generaly  
> understood - which included constitutionalism (that is why we  
> advocate for adopting Internet rights and principles), human rights,  
> structured participation etc - it is not about simple tyranny of  
> numbers.

The title, "Democratic internationalization of IG," would seem to  
suggest that some mechanisms of IG are not at present sufficiently  
democratic, ergo we're advocating DI.  Wouldn't it be helpful for us  
to specify which mechanisms we are talking about rather than leaving  
it abstract, and what exactly democratic would mean in these  
contexts?  The latter is of course quite a conundrum in all  
discussions of global governance; the WSIS principles' invocation of  
the term is hardly a source of philosophical clarity (at the time the  
background concern was to increase the role of the ITU, which sort of  
conflated multilateralism with democratic); the WGIG couldn't figure  
this out and gave up; and not everyone would necessarily understand  
the term as you define it above.

Can we be more precise on what we would all be contending with this  
proposal?

Best,

Bill


***********************************************************
William J. Drake
Senior Associate
Centre for International Governance
Graduate Institute of International and
   Development Studies
Geneva, Switzerland
william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
New book: Governing Global Electronic Networks,
http://tinyurl.com/5mh9jj
***********************************************************

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