[governance] Pro-multistakeholderist versus pro-democracy viewpoints

[Barry Shein]

Multistakeholder and democratic structures are not diametric.

Multistakeholder may or may not be democratic.

What is really being discussed is the unit of enfranchisement.

In Multistakeholderism the unit of enfranchisement is a recognized
interest group of people or organizations (e.g., telecom corporations
might unite to form a stakeholder group.)

In democracy it can be anything from an individual to multilateral
governmental organizations whose enfranchisement units are limited to
the 180 or so countries as voting members, or subsets or coalitions
thereof which is in effect the same thing since those choose to subset
or coalesce presumably by their own or via a subscribed initiative
process.

So the issues of multistakeholderism are:

1. How are the units of enfranchisement chosen or recognized?

2. How do they act? Democratically is one choice.

3. How is a body of multistakeholders coordinated and governed?

I think at this point the vagaries lie in #1, how are the units of
enfranchisement defined in a multistakeholder governing structure?

Are they self-defined? Whoever stands and claims to be represent a
stakeholder group must be recognized, as one extreme?

Are they defined by some higher authority such as an organizing
document or body to whom you must apply to be recognized as a
stakeholder for the purposes of enfranchisement?

Given some definitions for #1 one might be able to proceed to the
other definitional points.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

The World              | bzs at TheWorld.com           | http://www.TheWorld.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD        | Dial-Up: US, PR, Canada
Software Tool & Die    | Public Access Internet     | SINCE 1989     *oo*

-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t