[discuss] Problem definition 1, version 5

Thu Jan 23 09:53:38 UTC 2014

Am 23.01.14 03:23, schrieb Milton L Mueller:
>> Hi Marilia, I guess Milton means privatization without any public
>> supervision, which does not solve the issues you mention, however.
>
> Jeanette: On the contrary, I believe that de-nationalization involves
> creating new transnational institutions with their own internal and
> external accountability mechanisms.

Just for clarification: the new institutional framework would be neither 
public nor private but something hybrid called multi-stakeholder that 
includes governments?

jeanette
>
>> Could we really say that delegation to a transnational private
>> actor means to "de-nationalize"? I tend to think this is
>> over-simplification. This private actor may not have a
>> corresponding nationality in the sense that a country does. But if
>> we zoom in and look inside it, there are other issues to take into
>> account. Where is it based? What is its institutional culture?
>> Where is its staff from? Who are the members? Do vocal people
>> inside it really correspond to a global diversity of views? There
>> are many different ways in which apparently de-nationalized
>> transnational actors may in fact have nationality(ies).
>
> Marilia: Yes, we can say that institutional arrangements that are not
> based on a national government or an intergovernmental regime is to
> de-nationalize. You should not confuse the problem of diversity of
> voices with more basic issues of political structure. No one should
> claim that denationalization solves or magically improves all
> problems of governance and representation. But we _do_ have to choose
> whether the institutional arrangements are based on the nation-state
> system or not. That is the first and most important choice we have to
> make. As Jeannette's comments above illustrate, after a century or
> two of modern nation-states it's easy to confuse the concept of
> "public" with the concept of "state." That is the mentality I am
> trying to free us from.
>
> Further, the question of to whom an organization is accountable is
> far more important than where an entity is located geographically, or
> even the formal nationality of its employees.
>