[governance] Consensus or rough consensus?

Suresh Ramasubramanian suresh at hserus.net
Wed May 21 01:51:21 EDT 2014 

What stake does CS bring to the table - or rather, what stake do individual CS representatives bring to the table?   Are they there solely to demand a stake?  To put forth a purely political point of view? Or are they there to genuinely represent the interests of the constituency they serve?

The answer will be that it depends.  The companies you name and others do spend a lot on hiring public policy people to represent what they see as their own interests.  Quite often though not always these interests may be congruent with civil society - which is what helps in establishing a consensus.

--srs (iPad)

> On 21-May-2014, at 11:07, Jean-Louis FULLSACK <jlfullsack at orange.fr> wrote:
> 
> Dear all
> 
>  
> 
> Ian Wrote :
> 
> < the devil will be in how MSr* are defined, structured and organized as well as how their voice factors in the process and outcome.>
> 
>  
> 
> I'd rather add "who much they weigh in the information society" i.e. how important is their lobbying influence and power on policy making. In more concrete terms at which grade of representativeness will CS be able for challenging effectively ("equal footing") the the private sector, i.e. the "Internet Majors" Google, FB, Yahoo, M$, Amazon and Cos ?
> 
>  
> 
> The answer is in the question ...
> 
>  
> 
> Greetings
> 
>  
> 
> Jean-Louis Fullsack
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > Message du 21/05/14 01:59
> > De : "Mawaki Chango" 
> > A : "Internet Governance" , "Ian Peter" 
> > Copie à : 
> > Objet : Re: [governance] Consensus or rough consensus?
> > 
> >
> Interesting perspective, Ian. My first thought is that like anything else regarding MSm* the devil will be in how MSr* are defined, structured and organized as well as how their voice factors in the process and outcome. That is the Achilles' heel of any MSr process lies, IMO. The question is, can we ever come up with basic principles that will be broadly accepted as foundation for the legitimacy of MSm in some type of settings/contexts.
> 
> >
> Sorry if I don't directly reply to your question.
> 
> >
> Mawaki  
> 
> >
> MSm = multistakeholderism
> MSr = multistakeholder
> 
> =================
> Mawaki Chango, PhD
> Founder and Owner
> DIGILEXIS
> http://www.digilexis.com 
> > Skype: digilexis | Twitter: @digilexis & @pro_digilexis
> 
> >
> 
> > 
> >
>> On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 11:35 PM, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> wrote:
>> >
>> I’m interested to know people’s thoughts about the advisability of civil society promoting the “rough consensus” model of decision making as differing from what I will call “UN consensus”.
>> 
>> “UN consensus” is what we see happening in most UN decision making processes, some related international organisations, and also saw at NetMundial. This consensus model allows any one party to stand against adoption of any particular wording, even if the vast majority of parties present think otherwise. This leads to some less acceptable outcomes.
>> 
>> I think it is reasonable to say that “UN consensus” has been stifling in many instances and has inhibited progress in many areas.
>> 
>> Rough consensus could lead to different outcomes. For instance, in the NetMundial situation, it would have led to the stronger statements on surveillance, intermediate liability and net neutrality being maintained in the text, rather than being removed at the last moment due to the demands of a small number of government and business interests.
>> 
>> In other words, in this example at least, the mood of the meeting and the desires of the vast majority of participants would have been better reflected with a rough consensus decision making mechanism than with UN style consensus.
>> 
>> However, there is a danger here – minorities are not necessarily protected in rough consensus and more widespread adoption of a rough consensus decision making model could lead to suppression of some viewpoints. However, in a stakeholder model such as NetMundial needing rough consensus in all stakeholder groups would offer significant protection.
>> 
>>  So I am interested in any thoughts on the best model for us to promote here.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Ian Peter
>> 
>> 
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