Linking democratic anchorage and regulatory authority: The case of internet regulators

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ewert, Christian; Kaufmann, Celine; Maggetti, Martino
• 署名单位: University of Zurich; University of Lausanne; University of Lausanne
• 刊物名称: REGULATION & GOVERNANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1748-5983
• DOI: 10.1111/rego.12188
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 184-202
• 关键词: GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACCOUNTABILITY; legitimacy; icann

摘要

Scholars and practitioners have repeatedly questioned the democraticness and the authority of transnational multi-stakeholder organizations, especially those that regulate the internet. To contribute to this discussion, we studied the democratic anchorages and the regulatory authority of 23 internet regulators. In particular, we conducted a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis assessing whether and which anchorages correspond to necessary and/or sufficient conditions for exerting regulatory authority. Our results show that strong anchorage in democratic procedures is specifically relevant for this outcome. Further, we find that weak anchorage in democratically elected politicians leads to high regulatory authority, confirming the significance of non-state actors in this policy field. More generally, our findings support but also qualify expectations about the compatibility and mutual reinforcement of democratic quality and regulatory authority at the transnational level.