It is of course a risk that the multi-stakeholder model be tilted towards the interests of one part of the stakeholders - this is why, incidentally, Fadi was talking about *global* *equal* multi-stakeholder (“GEMS") model.
That there is a potential corruption of the model is no good reason for rejecting it, in particular in lack of a better system. So I would argue that the way to go is to make sure that the voice of the different stakeholders compose with the requirement
of being “global” (meaning all have a chance to get to the table) and “equal” (meaning all have the same voice).
In practice, civil society, because of the inherent limitations about financial power, should be subsidised to participate, and civil society itself has to make sure that it avoids infiltration of lobbyists among its rank and file.
Cheers,
R
On
July 16, 2018 at 01:48 6.Internet@gmail.com(Sivasubramanian
M) wrote:
On Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 12:16 AM <bzs@theworld.com> wrote:
Multistakeholderism is open to all -- like the Ritz Hotel.
( Understand that it is an anology that isn't perfect). Going by this anology,
it merely requires a simple, very simple fix: Reserve a third of the hotel by
unconditional funding to the stakeholder group that can't afford it, and to
anyone relatively less privileges even from within even the wealthier
stakeholder groups. Then we will find the elusive balance.
I
was thinking of how it exists, specifically ICANN, rather than some
hypothetical
implementation.
The
problem is that there is no tie-in (GAC possibly excepted but they
are
advisory) between those who participate and those who are affected
by
the various policy development processes.
Yes
in theory anyone, even the poorest internet user, could simply buy
themselves
plane tickets and hotel rooms etc and participate in the
meetings.
Given
the actual way it's organized one would likely have to do that
three
times per year for a few years to rise to any level of
participation
beyond open mikes.
But
it's open to anyone! Much like the Ritz Hotel.
It's
no accident that multistakeholderism has been referred to as
system
which is "of, by, and for the lobbyists"*.
In
a nutshell get rid of anything remotely resembling popularly
elected
voting members (even indirectly) and just let the big
registries,
registrars, and others with financial interests be the
stakeholders
and do all the policy development and approval.
Yes
one can identify the occasional exception to that.
*
That point was essentially on the wikipedia page for
multistakeholderism
under "Criticisms" but disappeared about a year or
so
ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Multistakeholder_governance_model&diff=768793583&oldid=750897618
Criticism
of multistakeholderism comes from Paul R. Lehto,
J.D.{{Citation
needed|date=March 2014}}, who fears that in
multistakeholderism,
those who would be lobbyists become
legislators,
and nobody else has a vote. Lehto states that "In a
democracy,
it is a scandal when lobbyists have so much influence
that
they write the drafts of laws. But in multistakeholder
situations
they take that scandal to a whole new level: those who
would
be lobbyists in a democracy (corporations, experts, civil
society)
become the legislators themselves, and dispense with all
public
elections and not only write the laws but pass them,
enforce
them, and in some cases even set up courts of arbitration
that
are usually conditioned on waiving the right to go to the
court
system set up by democracies. A vote is just a minimum
requirement
of justice. Without a vote, law is just force
inflicted
by the wealthy and powerful. Multistakeholderism is a
coup
d’etat against democracy by those who would merely be
lobbyists
in a democratic system."{{Citation needed|date=March
2014}}
--
-Barry
Shein
Software
Tool & Die | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com
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to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD | 800-THE-WRLD
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