Inventing e-regulation in the US, EU and East Asia: conflicting social visions of the Information Society

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. The paper then evaluates principal weaknesses in these regional models and argues the need for re-conceptualizing the cultural, political and economic approach to the new information space of the Internet. The analysis concludes by suggesting the need for a fundamental shift in approach to e-regulation that may offer a more effective design for the democratic and social development of cyberspace.