Dear all,
during the discussions concerning a
possible statement by the IGC on the
"nature of the Internet" someone - I
think it was Milton - underlined the
need to have a clear "problem
definition" and to assess the impact of
different policy options. I also noted
that others - I think it was Mawaki -
pointed out that this is rather high bar
for an "advocacy" statement.
I take absolutely no position on the need
for analysis / assessment before the IGC
makes a statement on this, or other
topics. The decision to issue a statement
as the IGC is of course fully the
responsibility of IGC members, which I'm
not.
However, this particular exchange led me
to a broader consideration. As you might
know, the European Commission (similarly
to other governments / public authorities)
has a formal obligation to conduct an
"impact assessment" before proposing new
initiatives. In reality, there are some
subtleties - not all "initiatives" require
it - but the key concept remains.
You can find further information on the
European Commission's approach to impact
assessments at
http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/index_en.htm.
If you are interesed and have plenty of
time at your disposal, you might also be
interested in two recent papers analysing
how well (or not :) the EC has performed
in this particular area (G. Lucchetta,
"Impact Assessment and the Policy Cycle in
the EU", 2013,
http://www.ceps.eu/book/impact-assessment-and-policy-cycle-eu;
O. Fritsch, C. Radaelli, L. Schrefler, A.
Renda, "Regulatory Quality in the European
Commission and the UK: Old questions and
new findings", 2012,
http://www.ceps.eu/book/regulatory-quality-european-commission-and-uk-old-questions-and-new-findings).
When conducting impact assessments,
there are certain agreed procedures which
are rather generic or "horizontal", i.e.
applying to different policy areas; but
there are also add-on procedures and
methodologies that are used when tackling
more specific policy areas / impacts. To
continue with the example of the European
Commission Impact Assessment procedures,
which are the ones I know best, specific
guidelines / methodologies to assess the
impact on SMEs, administrative
simplification and fundamental rights have
been introduced throughout the years.
I wonder whether there is a need to
introduce specific guidelines /
methodologies to assess the impact of
Internet-related policies (which I define on
the fly as "policies (including regulation,
soft law, research activities) which either
impact on, or are impacted by, the
Internet). Questions that come to my mind:
- is the Internet an important enough
phenomenon / infrastructure to justify having
specific methodologies to assess the impact of
policies on it, and its impact on policies?