[governance] Response to Jeremy's insinuations (was Re: Remarks at UNESCO Closing Ceremony...)

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On Mar 7, 2015, at 2:54 AM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> 
> Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org> wrote:
>> So let me get this straight: you are happy to accept global
>> multi-stakeholder governance where there is consensus (including of
>> governments), but where there isn't, then national parliaments get to
>> decide.   
> 
> Yes, absolutely. In fact it's part of the public record that I've been
> proposing this for a couple of years.

I know; you may have missed my irony...

> Nota bene, while this proposal is consistent with JNC's understanding
> of the word "democratic", it's at the current stage still just a
> personal proposal from me. JNC has not yet endorsed any concrete
> proposal or proposals for implementing our demand for "platforms and
> mechanisms for global governance of the Internet that are democratic
> and participative".

So JNC is in exactly the same position as that for which it (particularly Michael) regularly lambasts the pro-multi-stakeholder people.  In fact, we have more concrete proposals than you do!

>> Well, I'm glad we cleared that up, then.  
> 
> But sure, why not look for an even clearer way to express the demand
> that global multistakeholder governance of public policy matters must be
> really, really democratic, in the sense of the real meaning of the word.

So far from you we have "by democratic we mean, simply democratic" and "really, really democratic".  I'm not sure how much further that's taking us.  "Really, really democratic multi-stakeholderism"?

Democracy is not a checkbox - something you either have or you don't.  You can have more or less of it.  And there are several criteria that define it, representation being only one of them.  Despite JNC's specification that a global Internet governance body be UN-based, most of the UN suffers from deep democratic deficits.  That is one reason why the UN itself is opening up to multi-stakeholderism; over a decade ago Kofi Annan said, "In the past few decades, [civil society's] role has grown beyond all recognition -- as civil society groups have become advocates, shapers of policy, and allies of governments in the work on the ground.  Today, for the United Nations to succeed in many of its endeavours, partnership with civil society is not an option -- it is a necessity."

Conversely, there are non-governmental fora that are much more democratic, as the Internet technical community loves to remind us.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Global Policy Analyst
Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://eff.org
jmalcolm at eff.org

Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161

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