[governance] Your support for a petition

[Milton L Mueller]

> -----Original Message-----
> I think the document exaggerates a bit: "The GAC represents all the
> world's governments, including Iran, the U.S., Russia and China." It
> does not. It is a representation of a bunch of governments in a
> non-binding forum aggregated to a private organization. As Louis Pouzin
> reminds us, a bullet is missing in the petition:

This choice of words was careful and deliberate. Any government can join GAC. Thus, it could in principle usurp the role of an intergovernmental organization, and "represent"
 the views of any and all governments, individually and collectively, even though it would be an unlawful usurpation because there is no treaty or due process requirements underlying the GAC's powers, scope and operations. That lack of grounding in agreed, democratically derived law is precisely what makes the GAC so dangerous. Parminder's musings notwithstanding, anyone who doesn't understand the difference between the powers of a state apparatus with the authority to use guns unregulated by popularly accountable law, and private businesses which don't unless government gives it to them, is suffering from a pretty primitive understanding of politics. 

--MM

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

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