[governance] Re: [bestbits] IGC press release in response to the NTIA announcement of March 14

[Pranesh Prakash]

Dear Anriette and Mawaki,

Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org> [2014-03-17 10:12:36]:
> Good points Mawaki.  And good statement too.  I do think that in this
> paragraph you capture what many, if not most of us, understand by
> inclusive policy making/multi-stakeholder participation in policy making.

I'm not very sure about this.  What Mawaki describes is consultative and 
inclusive policymaking.  In this, relevant actors and stakeholders are 
*consulted* by the policymaker and their views are used in policy 
formulation.  These stakeholders are *not* regarded as "co-equals" at 
the policy table since they do not jointly make the decision.  It seems 
to me that there is a big difference between consultative and inclusive 
policymaking (e.g., the government issuing white papers and green papers 
and holding consultations, putting up the submissions, issuing a 
reasoned decision at the end of it, etc.) and treating stakeholders as 
co-decision-makers.

On the NCSG mailing list, I recently asked (in response to Milton's 
submission to NetMundial, in which he uses the term "co-equal"):

  * Governments, through votes or through other means, have gained 
political legitimacy to represent their nation-state.

  * Intergovernmental organizations claim political legitimacy by being 
membership-driven aggregations of these nation-states, and seek to 
espouse the 'global' point of view (and do a poor job of it, very often).

  * Business and technical organizations claim political legitimacy both 
by having historically been in control of this network of networks, and 
by the fact that there is no way possible for its continued operation 
without them.

  * Where do civil society actors (and academics), especially those many 
of us who *aren't membership organizations and don't have grassroot 
networks* to back us, get our political legitimacy from?  What answer 
should we give when asked, "Who died and made you king/queen/boss/co-equal?"


-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
-------------------
Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash

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