[governance] multistakeholderism

[Paul Lehto]

Multistakeholderism is a costume in which voluntary cooperation is
dressed up in, unless there's some power to enforce contracts,
agreements or resolutions that result.  That enforcement would have to
be in a court system.  There's your government power right there.

If the government somewhere can enforce private contracts or
multistakeholder resolutions or compacts it apparently has an interest
in subsidizing via the court system as well as the system of contract
law the private agreements of two or more parties.  Presumably, it
then has even more solid basis for intervention when the more
fundamental interests of equality are present.

P.S. Attacking the people or 'polity' as uninformed is the foundation
of every single non-democratic form of governance from Plato's
"philosopher kings" to aristocrats to dictators, the idea always being
that the people are too dumb and therefore need a great person to
guide them.  The truth is that the people know when the shoe fits,
that is, they are the best judge of whether laws chafe or embrace
their interests, just like they are for shoes on their own feet.  The
many instances people might try to cite where it seems the people have
not risen to the occasion are typically all instances in which it's
doubtful whether the opinion of any given person will even be listened
to by anybody, so in those kinds of cases it's reasonable for people
to shirk the duty of becoming informed on account of avoiding the
frustration that nobody listens anyway -- they only listen (if they do
at all) to the leaders of the civil society groups hand selected by
self-perpetuating bodies to speak for them.

Paul Lehto, J.D.

On 8/16/10, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
> Avri
>
> I think this is an important discussion, and thanks for engaging in it.
>
>     "I begin to despair (at least a little) as I see more and more
>     leaders in Civil society join some of the governments in the
>     condemnation of the multistakeholder model "
>
>
> My despair with so many leaders in civil society undermining and
> bypassing institutional (and not anarchist) democratic forms, especially
> in the IG space is perhaps prior, as often articulated in this list.
>
> Yes, any democracy has to have a consitutional framework, and though 1
> person 1 vote is basic and the most sacrosanct principle, it is only the
> start and any real democracy consists of numerous institutional
> supra-structures built over this basic norm.
>

-- 
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-2334
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t