Legitimacy, Power, and Inequalities in the Multistakeholder Internet Governance

This book aims to develop a critical understanding of multistakeholder governance in Internet Governance through an in-depth analysis of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition, the process through which the U.S. Government transferred its traditional oversight role over the Domain Name System to the global Internet community. In the last few decades, multistakeholderism has become the dominant discourse in the Internet Governance field, mainly because of its promise to provide democratic legitimacy for transnational policymaking, although empirical research has highlighted disappointing performances of multistakeholder arrangements. This book contributes to the debate on multistakeholder governance by analyzing the IANA Transition process's normative legitimacy, broken down in the dimensions of input legitimacy (inclusiveness, balanced representation, and representativeness), throughput legitimacy (procedural and discursive quality), and output legitimacy (outcome and institutional effectiveness). Findings warn about the risk that multistakeholderism could result in a misleading rhetoric legitimizing existing power asymmetries.

“Palladino and Santaniello offer an important assessment of the legitimacy of the IANA transition process. They address both empirically and conceptually the essential shortcomings of multistakeholder governance. This book represents a valuable contribution to internet governance scholarship and to the study of multistakeholder governance in general.”

—Jean-Marie Chenou, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of the Andes, Colombia

“Here is the enlightening survey of Internet governance and participatory democracy that everyone expects. The book assesses with lucidity the future of multistakeholderism as a solution to multilateralism in decline, which generates great hopes and sad disillusionment altogether. Combining a scholarly vision with a view from within the Internet community it mixes observation and theory to analyze the unending transition towards a self-regulating and decentralized decision-making system. While its promoters rhetoricallysee it as a benchmark for international activities beyond the Internet, the authors provide evidence that oligarchic power has not disappeared from the front stage. This is path breaking—an exhaustive and stimulating journey towards a more adequate and comprehensive knowledge of a vital sector that is too often victim of academic neglect.”

—Yves Schemeil, Professor of Political Science, University of Grenoble, France, and Professor of Global and Comparative Studies, the Institut Universitaire de Franceofessor, Political Science, University of the Andes, Colombia)

Nicola Palladino is a research fellow at the Department of Political and Social Studies, University of Salerno, Italy, where he works at the Internet & Communication Policy Center. He has taken part in several national and international research projects on Internet Governance, Internet Policy and Digital Constitutionalism processes.

Mauro Santaniello is a researcher at the Department of Political and Social Studies, University of Salerno, Italy, where he teaches Internet Governance and Digital Policy. He is a co-founder and vice director of the Internet & Communication Policy Center. He has led several research groups on Internet Governance and Policy.