[governance] Re: In Multistakeholderism, those who would be Lobbyists become Legislators, & nobody else has a vote

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

Most multistakeholder groups operate on a rough consensus model and are open to participation in a much wider set of mechanisms than a traditional democratic  political process.

So, while my traveling days look to be over thanks to a ban on conference travel at my workplace (which I don't speak for or represent here anyway), I still get to call a spade a spade on a mailing list, and so, try to influence consensus here to the best of my rather limited capacity

Given that perspective I would still disagree to some extent with your points here, but this is something that I prefer be discussed to death (that is, any further than this rather huge thread has done so far) over a round of beers rather than on a mailing list ..

cheers

--srs (htc one x)


----- Reply message -----
From: "Paul Lehto" <lehto.paul at gmail.com>
To: "Suresh Ramasubramanian" <suresh at hserus.net>
Cc: "governance at lists.igcaucus.org" <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>, "michael gurstein" <gurstein at gmail.com>
Subject: In Multistakeholderism, those who would be Lobbyists become Legislators, & nobody else has a vote
Date: Wed, Oct 24, 2012 7:42 AM


The subject line says it most succinctly: In Multistakeholderism, those who
would be Lobbyists become Legislators, & nobody else has a vote.

In a democracy, it is a scandal that lobbyists have so much influence that
they even write the drafts of laws.  But in multistakeholder situations
they take that scandal to a whole new level:  those who would be lobbyists
in a democracy (corporations, experts, civil society) become the
legislators themselves, and dispense with all public elections and not only
write the laws but pass them, enforce them, and in some cases even set up
courts of arbitration that are usually conditioned on waiving the right to
go to the court system set up by democracies.

A vote is just a minimum requirement of justice. Without a vote, law is
just force inflicted by the wealthy and powerful. Multistakeholderism is a
coup d'etat against democracy by those who would merely be lobbyists in a
democratic system.  So yes, I think it is misleading at best to use the
word "democratic" in reference to multistakeholder systems.

Paul R. Lehto, J.D.
-- 
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-4965 (cell)
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