The TCP/IP and related protocols that are used across the Internet are designed and agreed upon by the users and administrators of the individual parts of the Internet: anyone can contribute to the growth and direction of the Internet, though you do need to know a fair amount of technical detail to get involved. In this way, the Internet is not so much controlled by an organisation, as encouraged in a certain direction by its members. It's a kind of open, contributory democracy.

Sometimes, companies will try to force the net to go the way they want, but usually there's enough resistance from the mass of contributors to only go that way if the idea or direction is good for the 'net as a whole.

The influence each person has on the direction of the Internet is usually related to their technical knowledge and reputation, with widely respected techies holding the most power. It's perhaps more of a technocracy than a traditional democracy.