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Lobbying, which, when practiced by professional agencies, is also known as public affairs, is the practice of attempting to directly influence the actions of government, through various combinations of private cajoling, public actions, and the combination of the two (for instance, encouraging the public to contact members of a legislature). The goal of lobbying is to convince the government (usually specific segments of a government, such as a particular branch of bureaucracy or legislative committee) to follow policies desired by the lobbyist. The term lobbyist can apply to any person who attempts to directly influence the actions of government, but it usually denotes a professional advocate who is paid for their lobbying activity. Lobbyists of this type can be self-employed, selling their services to the highest bidder on specific projects, or they can be employed directly by organizations such as corporations that wish to influence policy. Lobbying exists because of disparities in the attention paid to government policies by various groups. Cohesive groups (such as a single-interest group like ExxonMobil or a group of companies in one industry) have more cohesive policy views than the general public, and are better able to coordinate their actions to achieve a desired outcome. Thus, they attempt to influence policy, confident that public opinion will be a relatively insignificant factor. For more on the theoretical bases of lobbying, see Mancur Olson's work on the collective action problem.
U.S. 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. Folklore stated by publicists for the Willard Hotel holds that "lobbying" originated at that accommodation as Ulysses S. Grant used its lobby repeatedly to drink brandy and smoke a cigar during his term as president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. Grant was often approached there by those seeking favors. However the verb "to lobby" is found decades earlier and did not originally refer to Washington politics. The word "lobby", used in the political sense of "those who seek to influence legislation" has been used since 1808 or earlier in American English, in reference to the custom of influence-seekers gathering in large entrance-halls outside legislative chambers. The verb in this sense is first attested 1850. "Lobbyist" is first attested 1863. 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 do so; 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 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 wake of the Abramoff scandal in Washington and the massive impact on the lobbying scene in the U.S., the rules for lobbying in the EU — which until now only consist of a non-binding code of conduct — will probably also be tightened and made more specific, 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. The full Transparency Initiative website is at http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/kallas/transparency_en.htm. The fragmented nature of EU institutional structure provides multiple channels through which organized interests may seek to influence policy-making. Lobbying takes place at the European level itself and within the existing national states. The most important institutional targets are the Commission, the Council, and the European Parliament. The Commission has a monopoly on the initiative in Community decision-making. Since it has the power to draft initiatives, it makes it ideally suited as an arena for interest representation. There are three main channels of indirect lobbying of the Council. First, interest groups routinely lobby the national delegations in Brussels,; the second indirect means of lobbying the Council is for interest groups to lobby members of the many Council-working groups. The third means of influencing the Council is directly via national governments. As a consequence of the co-decision procedures, the European Parliament attracts attention from lobbyists who target the rapporteur and the chairman of the committee. The rapporteurs are MEPs appointed by Committees to prepare the parliament’s response to the Commission’s proposal and to those measures taken by the Parliament itself. 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 in the United States 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 | ||||||||
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