[governance] Parminder's exchange with Bertrand

[Milton L Mueller]

>I neither see it as a panacea nor even in the category of possible panaceas, 
>for those are but classes of snake oil that are meant to cure all ills.  
> And Multistakeholder governance (MSG - i think of MS as multiple sclerosis) 

MSG = Monosodium Glutamate, a nasty chemical that bad chinese restaurants put in their food.

> I do see it as a modality that is important both in itself and as a stage 
> in the evolving development of governance systems.  It represents progress 
> over the nation-state, bi and multi-lateral modalities. 

Didn't I already agree heartily with this? 

> It also moves us beyond the pure top down or pure bottom up models.  
> In its best form it allows for persons, both natural and otherwise, to form 
> into self regulated interest and affinity groupings  and allows them, as 
> members of these groups, and with their individual voices, to participate 
> as peers in the critical governance activities, including talk, capacity 
> building, action, regulation and enforcement.

This form of governance has been discussed and analyzed for years before the MS-word came along. There are other, more appropriate words for it.

> I worry about the Muller/Katz formulation that diminishes this important 
> stage in governance development.  I worry mostly that this diminution plays 
> into the hands of those who want to remain in, and bolster the legitimacy of, 
> the older variants  of the Westfalian military-industrial sovereign state - 
> whether this is their intention or not.

OK, point taken. I do not want to do that. But my fear is that MS-ism represents a fragile and easy target for advocates of those "older variants" and also that sovereign states are actively using the rhetoric of MS (as Parminder pointed out) in a highly selective fashion for strategic purposes. 
So in the very short-term, perhaps I shouldn't bad-mouth MSG in view of the IGF renewal. I certainly favor a MS IGF over a normalized UN-driven one. But let's not confuse this short term tactical issue with our long term goals. 

--MM____________________________________________________________
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