What is Internet Governance?

We say Internet governance and not government because many issues in cyberspace are not and probably cannot be handled by the traditional territorial national institutions. Governance implies a polycentric, less hierarchical order; it requires transnational cooperation amongst standards developers, network operators, online service providers, users, governments and international organizations if it is to solve problems while retaining the openness and interoperability of cyberspace. For better or worse, national policy plays an important role in shaping the Internet, but the rise of cyberspace has produced, and will continue to produce, new institutions and governance arrangements that respond to its unique characteristics.

IGP’s analysis of the Internet governance space is informed by institutional economics, which identifies three broad categories of governance: markets, hierarchies and networks. Markets are driven by private transactions and the price mechanism. Hierarchies govern interactions through orders or compulsion by an authority, such as law enforcement by a state, a binding treaty, or the organizational control of a firm Networks are semi-permanent, voluntary negotiation systems that allow interdependent actors to opt for collaboration or unilateral action in the absence of an overarching authority. Internet governance involves a complex mixture of all three governance structures, including various forms of self-governance by market actors.