I suspect part of the issue is that ARIN is a monopoly provider of a variety public services that folks unrelated (directly) to ARIN must make use of. In other areas of public service provision, there are things like public utilities commissions that (in theory) ensure the monopoly service provider acts in the public benefit when services are added/changed/deleted. My impression is that the various WGs and SIGs in the other RIRs perform something similar to that function. There doesn't appear to be anything similar in the ARIN region.
having worked closely with a number of other RIRs, sad to say that a lot still goes on under the table [0]. hence my cspan analogy, shed some light in the corners. the community should be transparent before wikileaks gets to us. :) randy -- [0] - an old sardonic comment of mine on ripe is that it is a bottom up organization, and daniel and rob are at the bottom. and wear thick rubber/leather gloves when entering apnic.