Internet Governance: Exploration of Power Relationship

Abstract

The advent of the Internet and social media has decentralized authority over networking, and national government not only faces the challenge of the vast volume of communication flows but also the increasing decision-making power over the Internet by private companies and civil society organizations, which constitute a new locus of authority. How should national government related to and engaged with these new private and social actors in Internet governance? How has national government engaged with those actors? And how power is distributed in such engagement? This paper explores the models of internet governance in both the International and Chinese contexts. The models explored include multi-stakeholderism, and analytical network-governance. While the first model is underpinned by its functionalist argument and normativity, the late one, however, from analytical approach, demonstrates power relations between different actors. The paper concludes by proposing an integrated model combining two approaches (normative and analytical) in studying internet governance.

Keywords: GigaNet