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

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 27/10/2012, at 1:02 AM, Paul Lehto <lehto.paul at gmail.com> wrote:

> There is not only ONE stakeholder who becomes THE legislator - but there are MULTI stakeholders. In the absence and impossibility of taking universal votes on IG issues, I am not surprised about - and I share - the opinion of many that multi-stakeholder systems are the most practical ones that avoid that ONE stakeholder decides everything, and gives many opinions access to public discussion, even while decisions are organized not as a result of a vote in a multi-stakeholder forum.
> 
> The critical - and illegitimate - move in the above is to redefine democratically elected representatives as merely ONE stakeholder among many.  This radically demotes the only legitimate form of governance - those that derive their authority from the consent of the governed via elections - to just one voice among many (undemocratic) voices.  


So governments are the only legitimate stakeholders in Internet governance?  I don't think you can just wave away the practical problems with this - the democratic deficits in all intergovernmental bodies, and the fact that there are transnational (border-crossing) interests that governments have no democratic mandate to take into account - so even in theory, they are not adequate representatives of the public interest.

-- 
Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers
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