In Ruling the Root, Milton Mueller uses the theoretical framework of institutional economics to analyze the global policy and governance problems created by the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses. "The root" is the top of the domain name hierarchy and the Internet address space. It is the only point of centralized control in what is otherwise a distributed and voluntaristic network of networks. Both domain names and IP numbers are valuable resources, and their assignment on a coordinated basis is essential to the technical operation of the Internet. Mueller explains how control of the root is being leveraged to control the Internet itself in such key areas as trademark and copyright protection, surveillance of users, content regulation, and regulation of the domain name supply industry.Control of the root originally resided in an informally organized technical elite comprised mostly of American computer scientists. As the Internet became commercialized and domain name registration became a profitable business, a six-year struggle over property rights and the control of the root broke out among Internet technologists, business and intellectual property interests, international organizations, national governments, and advocates of individual rights. By the late 1990s, it was apparent that only a new international institution could resolve conflicts among the factions in the domain name wars. Mueller recounts the fascinating process that led to the formation of a new international regime around ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In the process, he shows how the vaunted freedom and openness of the Internet is being diminished by the institutionalization of the root.

How institutions for Internet governance are emerging from the tension between the territorially bound nation-state and a transnational network society. When the prevailing system of governing divides the planet into mutually exclusive territorial monopolies of force, what institutions can govern the Internet, with its transnational scope, boundless scale, and distributed control? Given filtering/censorship by states and concerns over national cybersecurity, it is often assumed that the Internet will inevitably be subordinated to the traditional system of nation-states. In Networks and States, Milton Mueller counters this, showing how Internet governance poses novel and fascinating governance issues that give rise to a global politics and new transnational institutions. Drawing on theories of networked governance, Mueller provides a broad overview of Internet governance from the formation of ICANN to the clash at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the formation of the Internet Governance Forum, the global assault on peer-to-peer file sharing, and the rise of national-level Internet control and security concerns. Internet governance has become a source of conflict in international relations. Networks and States explores the important role that emerging transnational institutions could play in fostering global governance of communication-information policy.

Computerization has generated dra-matic advances In telecommunica-tions, such as mobile telephones and video conferencing. Coupled with this are major changes in regulation, as telephone companies face new compet-itors. States are experimenting with new forms of utility regulation and de-regulation in order to cope with the demands of rising competition. Here Mueller examines in detail the results of a radical telephone regulation law.

In 1986, the state of Nebraska com-pletely discarded traditional utility reg-ulation, deregulating rates and profits of its local telephone companies. The Nebraska experiment has become a benchmark for reassessing the role of state regulation In the future of tele-communications. Using comparative data from five midwestern states, Mueller shows how deregulation af-fected rates, investment, infrastruc-ture modernization, and profits. He uncovers both positive and negative results. Mueller found established telephone companies to be basically conservative, not aggressive and ex-pansionist, and concludes that new competition, not regulation or deregu-lation, is transforming the telecommu-nications industry.

This book is the first systematic em-pirical study of the controversial Ne-braska law and its broader effects. It will be a significant addition to the much debated issue of telecommuni-cations deregulation. Economists, pol-icymakers, and telecommunications managers will find in this volume a substantial resource. According to Robert Atkinson, senior vice president of Teleport Communications Group: "Nebraska's experiences with telecom-munications deregulation--the good, the bad and the ugly--need to be un-derstood by all telecommunications policymakers across the country so that they can emulate Nebraska's suc-cesses and avoid its mistakes. Mueller provides the roadmap."