Collective regulation processes

This attempt at a definition of the contours of the thematic put forward by the IRG is in itself subject to debate and will be progressively refined through future activities on the subject.

Political and social regulation today is no longer solely based within public institutions. Actors involved in governance now exist in multiple guises; the way in which their partnerships are organised is thus central in areas as vital as sustainable development, water management, the mastering of the information society, systems of international exchange of physical or intellectual products, etc. The linking together of actors, the drawing together of institutional and social zones, debates on the notion of public property, notably on a global level, the processes of consultation between public power and citizens are themes that according to the IRG, are fundamental to this issue. In a world where the entity of the Nation-state is ever present, and where many political decision-makers think that modes of regulation or the resolution of conflicts are the lot of intergovernmental organisations and thus imply no involvement on the part of other actors, these processes today are still far from being automatic on all levels of decision-making. The IRG promotes the importance of bringing together analyses and their related methods and experiences on existing collective processes to put the emphasis on the central importance of the link between the social contract and its position in the development of this process