ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates soft governance in information society policy. It argues that the use of soft initiatives has further anchored a technocratic style of governance within this particular policy sector. Europe's path towards soft governance in information society policy seems to be set. This is disconcerting, particularly in a policy area which claims to work towards the promotion of European integration and building of civil society in Europe. Key variables missing from the soft governance model are transparency, legitimacy and democratic input to policy-making processes. Since the 2005 European Transparency initiative, the European Commission (EC) has taken some steps towards greater transparency of committee governance, however processes remain opaque and lack consultation requirements. Transparency is particularly important considering that the European Union (EU) is already suffering from a democratic deficit. In addition, soft governance and self-regulation are essentially weak instruments of control as they are neither binding nor legally legitimate and do not hold up in court.
