[governance] Pro-multistakeholderist versus pro-democracy viewpoints

Mon Mar 9 06:44:20 EDT 2015

Dear Norbert,

I appreciate Your initiative as a welcome opportunity to move the
discussion forward. I have done some research in the past on
multistakeholder partnerships in other contexts. The findings showed that
the quality of the MSPs is decisive for their effectiveness and
sustainability. As larger the asymmetrical relationship in terms of
information, participation, political power and funding as weaker the
results. One could also argue as more democratic the  relationship as
better, but with some qualifications. One is the issue of spoilers, who do
not share the basic consensus on which each cooperation needs to be based
and another is the fact that inequalities in resource endowment cannot be
democratized away, so donors will normally have more say than
beneficiaries. 

Accordingly, the issue is about recognition of existing inequalities of
power and mitigating them to optimize the cooperation and with it the
results to be achieved.This includes demystifying concepts like
"partnerships" by addressing existing inequalities and being transparent
about the objectives of the different partners.

To apply the concept of democracy in this context means to adjust it to
the relationships to be addressed, which are not the same as on the state
level among citizens. We also have for many years a discussion on
"democratization" of international economic organizations, which mainly
means more participations of CS acting in the public interest. This can
improve the quality and the acceptance of decisions. The call for further
democratization of IG in my view goes in the same direction, but much will
depend on how united CS is in its demands and if partners can be convinced
of the value-added of more equal participation for all stakeholders.

Wolfgang Benedek

Am 09.03.15 10:38 schrieb "Norbert Bollow" unter <nb at bollow.ch>:

>Recent events seem to indicate, in my eyes at least, that a significant
>divide which is in existence within civil society in relation to
>Internet governance can be characterized appropriately as follows:
>
>a) Pro-multistakeholderist viewpoints, which are characterized by
>elevating a principle of multistakeholderism to a very high status, and
>it fact giving it a status which is as high or higher than the status
>which is ascribed to the principle that Internet governance must be
>democratic. This is often done by insisting on the importance of
>multistakeholder governance without mentioning democracy at all.
>
>b) Pro-democracy viewpoints, which are characterized by insisting that
>Internet governance must be democratic. Pro-democracy viewpoints may
>involve endorsement of multistakeholder processes for Internet
>governance (even if not all who hold pro-democracy viewpoints would
>necessarily agree in any way with multistakeholderism), but the
>principle that governance must be democratic would always be seen as
>having greater importance and a higher priority than any endorsement of
>multistakeholderism.
>
>From the above it would be clear that any consensus between those who
>hold a pro-multistakeholderist viewpoint and those who hold a
>pro-democracy viewpoint would involve agreeing on a path forward for
>Internet governance that is multistakeholderist as well as democratic.
>
>Alas what happened at the UNESCO conference in Paris was that some of
>those who have pro-multistakeholderist viewpoints (specifically, Jeremy
>and the US government as well as diplomats of a few other countries who
>had instructions from their governments to support positions of the US
>government in relation to multistakeholderism upon any such request
>from the US delegation) were unwilling to agree to any kind of
>consensus text along those lines.
>
>As a result, the conference ended without reaching consensus.
>
>I welcome comments, especially in relation to the characterization of
>"pro-multistakeholderist" versus "pro-democracy" viewpoints. I have
>written this with every intention of accurately summarizing the
>viewpoints of both sides.
>
>Greetings,
>Norbert
>
>
>On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 09:32:17 +0100
>Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
>
>> For clarity, to the extent that my question about links to concrete
>> proposals from the pro-multistakeholderist perspective maybe wasn't
>> clear enough (and it maybe in particular wasn't clear enough that
>> those general references which Jeremy has given to vast bodies of
>> written words do nothing at all to answer this question), even if it
>> is true that there are vast bodies of Internet governance related
>> text which is mostly written from pro-multistakeholderist(*)
>> perspectives:
>> 
>> 
>> The context of this little side debate is that I had posted a link to
>> my proposal http://WisdomTaskForce.org and clarified that
>> 
>> 1) this is at the current stage simply my proposal - I wasn't posting
>> it as a JNC position, and
>> 
>> 2) JNC has an intention of publishing a relevant position paper, of
>> which I will notify this mailing list when it has been published, and
>> 
>> 3) the proposal to which I posted the link is a proposal for
>> addressing the challenges of developing *global* public policy,
>> without overlooking the fact that it is not always possible to reach
>> consensus.
>> 
>> 
>> Jeremy replied, IMO somewhat disingenuously, with the following exact
>> words: "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!"
>> 
>> 
>> Of course JNC has since it was created made a large number of concrete
>> proposals on a significant number of topics.
>> 
>> So the context in which I asked for links to "your concrete proposals"
>> was a context of proposals for addressing the challenge of developing
>> *global* public policy without overlooking the fact that it is not
>> always possible to reach consensus.
>> 
>> 
>> I would like to hereby reiterate this request, but now with what I
>> hope is abundant clarity: I am asking for concrete links to proposals
>> for generally addressing the challenge of developing *global* public
>> policy in relation to the Internet, without overlooking the fact that
>> it is not always possible to reach consensus.
>> 
>> (In case it is not clear what I mean with "public policy": I mean
>> policies for topics where the disagreements are about how conflicts
>> of interest and conflicting concerns of different stakeholders
>> should be resolved. This category of public policy matters is in
>> contrast to purely technical matters where the disagreements are about
>> questions of technical nature, i.e. "what is technically a better
>> solution?")
>> 
>> 
>> I am interested in such proposals regardless of whether I'm going to
>> agree with them. If a proposal is made and disagreement is expressed,
>> the discourse has been moved forward a bit.
>> 
>> 
>> By contrast, I tend to think that any attempt to continue the
>> discussion without concretely discussing concrete proposals in
>> relation to this important question would probably indeed result in
>> going around in circles.
>> 
>> By the way, Parminder has in a recent posting referred to essentially
>> the same question as it being a "lean and mean question". I find that
>> characterization quite fitting. I would say that it is a "lean"
>> question because it cannot be addressed by means of pointing to a vast
>> body of writings on a large number of somewhat related topics. And I
>> would say that it is a "mean" question because I don't see it as easy
>> to answer it in a satisfactory way.
>> 
>> Greetings,
>> Norbert
>> 
>> 
>> (*) P.S. in relation to the term "pro-multistakeholderist": I'll make
>> another posting shortly in which I'll explain how I see the
>> distinction between pro-multistakeholderist and pro-democracy
>> viewpoints, and in which I will solicit comments on that description
>> of this distinction.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Sun, 8 Mar
>> 2015 09:26:32 -0700 Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org> wrote:
>> 
>> > On Mar 7, 2015, at 10:41 PM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
>> > > 
>> > > On Sat, 7 Mar 2015 22:05:55 -0800
>> > > Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org> wrote:
>> > > 
>> > >> 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!
>> > > 
>> > > Where are your concrete proposals? Do you have links for them,
>> > > like I have given a link to my proposal?
>> > > ( http://WisdomTaskForce.org .)
>> > 
>> > If you're unaware of these, you have a lot of reading to catch up
>> > on.  Start at GigaNet (http://giga-net.org/).  For a less academic,
>> > higher-level outline, also look through the submissions to
>> > NETmundial (http://content.netmundial.br/docs/contribs).  For my
>> > own part, you're already aware that seven years ago I published
>> > over 600 pages on how the IGF could become a multi-stakeholder body
>> > that makes public policy recommendations, and released it under
>> > Creative Commons at https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0980508401-
>> > surely that counts if your Wisdom Task Force counts.  And do none
>> > of the current proposals for IANA transition (eg.
>> > 
>>http://www.internetgovernance.org/2014/03/03/a-roadmap-for-globalizing-ia
>>na/)
>> > count for anything?
>> > 
>> > If you're after a more generalised set of criteria of good
>> > multi-stakeholder processes (back at the Bali IGF what I started
>> > calling a "quality seal" of multi-stakeholderism), rather than
>> > proposals that are specific to the IGF, ICANN, etc. then you can
>> > expect news about another effort to produce something like this in
>> > the next week or two, following on from a pre-UNESCO side-meeting
>> > that some of us attended - but there's an announcement coming soon
>> > and I'm not going to steal its thunder.
>> > 
>> > Anyway, the supposed lack of concrete proposals is not the real
>> > point, right?  The problem that you really have is that you're not
>> > satisfied with what those proposals say, by aiming to transcend
>> > statist global governance, which you don't accept is democratically
>> > legitimate.  So let's not muddy the water with false issues.
>> > 
>> > I am going to take a break from this discussion for now, because it
>> > has been going around in circles.  Everything that could possibly be
>> > said between us on this topic, has been - many times.  I'm starting
>> > to feel like I should just write a FAQ, and reply to list mails with
>> > a link to that.  For now, if there is anything that you think you
>> > don't already have a response to, write to me off list and I'll
>> > point you to it.
>> > 
>> 
>> 
>
>

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