Inventing E-Regulation in the US, EU and East Asia: Conflicting Social Visions of the Internet & the Information Society

Abstract

This paper attempts to assess the international approach to Internet policy in the context of distinctive socio-political frameworks evolving in the US, the European Union (EU), and East Asia. The comparative review will develop a set of underlying structural models of the Information Society particular to each region, along with an analysis of their defining characteristics in relation to one another. This examination demonstrates how each region, given its regulatory legacy, has elected a different mix of good and bad socio-political choices in public policy for the Internet. Despite the range and diversity of paths to e-regulation suggested in these choices, none adequately addresses the underlying issue of how to promote an innovative society that is open to broad social participation. The paper evaluates principal weaknesses in these regional models of Internet policy and argues the need for re-conceptualizing the cultural, political and economic approach to the new information space of the Internet.