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Lobbying

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Lobbying is the professional practice of advocating private and public interests versus legislators and decision makers. Its goal is to influence the governing bodies. The terms Public Affairs or Government Relations are often used as synonyms to lobbying, but in fact are subcategories only. Public Affairs usually is practised by PR companies and basically limited to information gathering (monitoring legislation and politics) and influencing public opinion through the means of Public Relations and campaigns. Government Relations however means directly influencing the legislative process and the legislator to show legal or economic problems and concerns regarding a certain draft law. This is mostly done through specialized lobbying firms or respective departments of law firms.

Most major corporations and political interest groups hire professional lobbyists to promote their interests as intermediaries; others maintain in-house government relations or public affairs departments. Think tanks aim to lobby through regular releases of detailed reports and supporting research to the media for dissemination .

A distinction can be made between "public interest groups", which are groups aiming non materials and large interests, and "special interest groups", which are groups whose interests are only reserved to their members. This distinction has been established by Jeffrey Berry in his book "Lobbying the people". More recently, Berry proposed a new distinction between "occupational groups" and "citizens groups".

A separate form of lobbying, called "outside" lobbying or grassroots lobbying, seeks to affect the legislature or other bodies indirectly, through changing public opinion (or purporting to — see astroturfing). A modification of the same, aimed to leaders and influential persons in the community, is known as grasstops.

Lobbying is in many countries a regulated activity, with limits placed on how it is conducted, in an attempt to prevent political corruption. In the United States for example, lobbyists must be registered unless they represent an elected official, or an organization of elected officials, such as the National Governors Association, as well as conform to a number of other disclosures. |} | →



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Contents

US Lobbying

Lobbyists in the United States target the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures. They may also represent their clients' or organizations' interests in dealings with federal, state, or local executive branch agencies or the courts. Lobbyists sometimes also write legislation and whip bills.

This tradition began during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, who served as president between 1869 and 1877. Not allowed to smoke in the White House by his wife, Grant enjoyed his cigars in the lobby of the nearby Willard Hotel. Having been spotted there often, politicians and others wanting political favors began to frequent him during this time of repose, while he was in high spirits.

In July 2005, Public Citizen published a report entitled "The Journey from Congress to K Street": the report analyzed hundreds of lobbyist registration documents filed in compliance with the "Lobbying Disclosure Act" and the "Foreign Agents Registration Act", among other sources. It found that since 1998, 43 percent of the 198 members of Congress who left government to join private life have registered to lobby. The Washington Post described these results as reflecting the "sea change that has occurred in lawmakers' attitudes toward lobbying in recent years." The paper noted that

Congressional historians say that lawmakers rarely became lobbyists as recently as two decades ago. They considered the profession to be tainted and unworthy of once-elected officials such as themselves. And lobbying firms and trade groups were leery of hiring former members of Congress because they were reputed to be lazy as lobbyists, unwilling to ask former colleagues for favors.
But starting in the late 1980s, high salaries for lobbyists, an increasing demand for lobbyists, greater turnover in Congress, and a change in the control of the House all contributed to a change in attitude about the appropriateness of former elected officials becoming lobbyists.

Former lawmakers are eagerly hired as lobbyists because of their relationships with their former colleagues as well as other contacts. The Public Citizen report included a case study of one particularly successful lobbyist, Bob Livingston, who stepped down as Speaker-elect and resigned his seat in 1999 after a sex scandal. In the six years since his resignation, his lobbying group grew into the 12th largest non-law lobbying firm, earning nearly $40 million by the end of 2004. During roughly the same time period, Livingston, his wife, and his two political action committees (PACs) contributed over $500,000 to the PACs or campaign funds of various candidates.

The increasing number of former lawmakers becoming lobbyists has led Senator Russ Feingold (D, WI) to propose paring back the many Capitol Hill privileges enjoyed by former senators and representatives. His plan would deprive lawmakers-turned-lobbyists of privileges such as unfettered access to otherwise "members only" areas such as the House and Senate floors and the House gym.

Most recently the scandal involving former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has inspired the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2006, a bill debated on the Senate floor in March 2006. According to Time Magazine article in its April 10th issue, the Senate passed legislation the first week of April 2006 to reform U.S. lobbying practices. The Senate bill: 1) bars lobbyists themselves from buying gifts and meals for legislators, but it leaves a big loophole: firms and organizations represented by those lobbyists may still dole out freebies; 2) Privately funded trips would still be allowed if lawmakers get prior approval from a commissioned ethics committee; 3) It would also require lobbyists to file more frequent, more detailed reports on their activities, which would be posted in public domains.

Critics of the bills proposed from both the House and Senate like Fred Wertheimer, head of the nonpartisan Democracy 21 watchdog group, say the bills "leave lobbyists free to function in Congress exactly the way they have been functioning."

EU Lobbying

Lobbying in Brussels was only born in the late 1970s. Up to that time, “diplomatic lobbying” at the highest levels remained the rule. There were few lobbyists involved in the system and except for some business associations, representative offices were rarely used. The event that sparked the explosion of lobbying was the first direct election of the European Parliament in 1979. Up until then the Parliament consisted of members delegated from the national parliaments. Through that change, EU decision making became more complex, and companies increasingly felt the need of an expert local presence to find out what was going on in Brussels. The foundation of lobbying was therefore the need to provide information. From that developed the need to influence the process actively and effectively . The next important step in lobbying development was the Single European Act of 1986 which both created the qualified majority vote for taking decisions in the Council and enhanced the role of the Parliament, again making EU legislation more complex and lobbying more important and attractive for stakeholders. In short, the stronger the EU developed from a Member States organization to an own political player in the world, the more policy areas it covered, the more important it became as a lobbying target. With the EU enlargement in 2004 this development has taken a further step, bringing in not only a lot more players and stakeholders but also a wide range of different political cultures and traditions.

There are currently around 15,000 lobbyists in Brussels (consultants, lawyers, associations, corporations, NGOs etc.) seeking to influence the EU’s legislative process. Some 2,600 special interest groups have a permanent office in Brussels. Their distribution is roughly as follows: European trade federations (32%), consultants (20%), companies (13%), NGOs (11%), national associations (10%), regional representations (6%), international organizations (5%) and think tanks (1%).

In the course of the Abramoff scandal in Washington and the massive impact on the lobbying scene in the US, the rules for lobbying in the EU - which until now is only a non-binding code of conduct - will probably also be tightened and more specific on EU level, as indicated by the Commission through its latest transparency initiative (Green Paper on European Transparency Initiative: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/kallas/doc/com2006_0194_4_en.pdf.

Lobbying the EU does not stop in Brussels but continues in the EU Member States (i.e. Berlin, Paris, London etc.) since EU directives provide for a frame law only which has to be implemented by the national governments afterwards. Further, besides the Commission and the Parliament, the Council is one of the major EU institutions to lobby. Since it is constituted from the national Member States' governments, lobbying the Council involves lobbying the capitals. 



Lobbyists for Social Change


Many lobbyists work exclusively for humanitarian causes and there are organizations that lobby on behalf of various issues. The World Wildlife Fund lobbies to protect endangered animals and [The Borgen Project] lobbies for greater U.S. involvement in addressing global poverty.



Alleged corruption in lobbying

Lobbying is frequently performed on behalf of organizations which also make campaign contributions. This has led to allegations of corruption by opponents of some lobbying organizations.


Politicians are sometimes placed in apparently compromising positions because of their need to solicit financial contributions for their campaigns. Critics complain that they then appear to be acting in the interests of those who fund them, giving rise to the public perception of political corruption. 


In the United Kingdom, political parties have been known to raise funds by the 'sale' of peerages and other honours. Since peers sit in the House of Lords, part of the UK legislature, they are in a position to initiate or amend Bills on their way to becoming Acts of Parliament. The rules of Parliament require participants in debates to 'declare their interest'. The 'sale' of peerages is a criminal offence. To circumvent this law, it is alleged that some contributions thus solicited, are given, not as outright gifts but as loans. 


Supporters of the system respond that many politicians act in the interests of those who fund them due to common ideologies or shared local interests, and that lobbyists merely support those who agree with their positions.


Several states and cities have passed Clean Elections laws to be sure that lobbyists gain influence by the persuasiveness of their arguments rather than the size of their campaign contributions.



See also







References





External links


General




Lobbying in the United States
 



Lobbying in Europe



Lobbying in Canada



Lobbying in the UK






































 





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