[WSIS CS-Plenary] publication on WSIS and Civil Society

[Ralf Bendrath]

Hi all,

my colleague Charlotte Dany has analyzed the WSIS negotiations and the 
impact CS had in different phases of the policy cycle. Her final research 
report is just out. Enjoy reading.

Best, Ralf

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Dany, Charlotte (2006): /The Impact of Participation: How Civil Society 
Organisations contribute to the Democratic Quality of the UN World Summit 
on the Information Society/, TranState Working Paper 43, Bremen: 
Collaborative Research Center "Transformations of the State"

download at: 
http://www.state.uni-bremen.de/pages/pubApBeschreibung.php?SPRACHE=en&ID=50

Abstract

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held by the United 
Nations in 2003 to draft a programmatic declaration for the information 
age. The involvement of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the drafting 
process was innovative and led to WSIS becoming an especially instructive 
case in order to assess the potential of civil society participation in 
global governance. The author analyses the preconditions that were 
provided for CSOs to participate within this policy process and how it 
influenced the policy output. The all-encompassing rhetoric of the 
multi-stakeholder approach at WSIS and its good performance with regard to 
conceding access, transparency and inclusion to non-state actors suggest 
that the summit would be responsive to arguments from civil society and 
therefore a likely case for a deliberative policy process. However, the 
impact of CSOs on the policy documents has only been marginal. Despite 
favourable conditions for CSO participation, WSIS was not as responsive 
towards civil society arguments as could have been expected. A content 
analysis of policy documents and civil society statements with regard to 
three selected issue areas – Internet governance, intellectual property 
rights and communication rights – reveals that CSOs were, in many cases, 
not able to influence the outcome. Their argumentative input only led to 
minor changes in the policy documents. The case of the World Summit on the 
Information Society indicates that favourable conditions for CSO 
participation alone do not necessarily provide a solution for the 
democratic deficit in global governance.