[governance] Debunking eight myths about multi-stakeholderism

[Karl Auerbach]

On 04/24/2015 04:12 PM, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> http://igfwatch.org/discussion-board/debunking-eight-myths-about-multi-stakeholderism

I take strong exception to that piece's assertion that ICANN's global 
election in year 2000 was a manifest failure.

That election worked despite active attempts by ICANN to manipulate it, 
to discredit it, to technically undermine it, and to emasculate those 
who were elected.

There were several directors who were elected who, in my opinion, were 
at least as good as, and even better than, those who got their board 
seats through ICANN's "nominating" processes before or after year 2000.

Yes, there were difficulties.  But ICANN raced to destroy the system 
rather than to work through the relatively few problems that did occur.

Some mud was thrown at those elections because in some parts of the 
world there were pressures from large companies and governments to 
encourage their employees or citizens to vote in the ICANN elections. 
To my mind that is not a flaw - rather it is good when voters vote - it 
merely raises the issue that is common to many elections: that electors 
have the ability to make real, non-coerced, informed choices, and that 
each voter's vote is secure and secret.

As for the rest of that piece - I pretty much disagree with it in 
totality.  To my mind the atomic unit of governance is the individual 
human being.

"Stakeholderism" denies the worth of an individual person. It drowns 
individual voices beneath the amplified screams of fiat "stakeholders".

And what are these "stakeholders"?  Corporations are simply a legal 
concept that recognizes and permits a group of consenting people to pool 
their assets and do business in concert.  Why should we give a voice in 
governance to what is merely an convenience for the management of money?

And we ought not to forget that those people who own and operate 
corporations - they are people too, and thus by means of their corporate 
property they get a second (and third and fourth) voice - and often a 
louder voice and an elevated place from which to speak - in the halls of 
governance.

And national governments: If we accept the theory that those governments 
honestly and accurately express the values and interests of their 
citizens, then why do we do need any other participants than 
governments?  The answer is obvious: We have learned that governments, 
just like corporations, tend to be driven by small opaque groups and 
express the short-term interests of those groups.

So why are so many of us so enamored by stakeholderism?  Are we so 
captured by political correctness that we must open the door and invite 
the wolves to dine with us - or on us?

The basic unit of governance should always be the individual human 
being.  Of course humans ought to be free to combine, and recombine, 
into fluid combinations to which they may delegate, or revoke, 
permission to speak and advocate on their behalf.  Indeed, we know that 
those who join hands will speak louder than the sum of their individual 
voices.  But we destroy that power when we ossify that fluid system into 
pre-defined tribes on the basis of "stake".

And it really does not matter if the form of internet governance is 
based on a system of elected representatives rather than direct 
elections - as long as the voters have the power from time to time to 
change their minds and replace their representatives.

Stakeholderism replaces fluidity of expression of interest with a rigid 
system in which influence is pre-established and apportioned. 
Stakeholderism is a caste system in which corporations and governments - 
because they can invest in the never-closing eye and participate 
everywhere - will inevitably rise high and individual people will sink low.

		--karl--



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