[governance] Help from MAG colleagues

[Paul Lehto]

On 3/26/11, Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> wrote:
>  One of the key problems with
> MSism is that there are no clear boundaries between stakeholder groups, esp
> in civil society, and the process of selecting "representatives" of such
> groups is fraught with opportunities for manipulation. The claim, for
> example, that marginalized people in developing countries are represented by
> their governments, whose policies are often the cause of their lack of
> resources and marginalization, needs to be questioned.

It is universally recognized (and evidenced for example in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights) that the only legitimate
representatives or governments are those governments based on the
consent of the governed.  A free people may consent to bad policies
that actually or arguably hurt them, but then they (if they are free)
are also free to change those policies or that government.

A government may, or may not, legitimately represent its people.  With
civil society NGOs, while some of them under some circumstances will
clearly be MORE representative than say an autocratic dictatorship,
they still are not based on the consent of the governed and thus are
not legitimate to represent, and vote for, anyone other than their
members (who may often have to pay money just to be a member).

In short, governments may sometimes be illegitimate representatives of
the people, but civil society NGOs always are, even when their ideas
are right on point and fantastic, as many are.

With these 'questionable' governments, the question is not one of bad
policy or hurting one's own people, but of freedom and democracy.  A
free people must be free to "hurt themselves" as it were, otherwise
they are not free, they are managed like children to keep them from
hurting themselves.

Paul Lehto, J.D.

>
-- 
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-4026 (cell)
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