The private ordering of Internet governance: powers of self-determination at stake

Authors

  • Patricia Mindus

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.173.03

Keywords:

Political freedom, Internet Governance, CIR, Internet architecture, Democracy

Abstract

To better understand what issues today’s technologies raise in relation to political liberty, understood as self-determination, attention should shift from the level of contents of the Internet to its more basic architecture and governance (critical internet resources [CIR], protocols, governance ecology, etc.). Mainstream political science has for a long time eschewed the field of Internet governance. There is nonetheless an interesting debate on how we should handle this new world we have in common that is constituted by the infosphere. The paper shows why the debate on the control of the Internet is often misleading: too much attention on traditional institutional actors has obscured the fact that the «seats of power» are now elsewhere. In order to move within the private ordering that currently characterizes Internet governance, in a way that is respectful of fundamental rights, we need to rethink the relationships between social powers.

Issue

Section

ARTICLES