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Lobbying includes all attempts to influence legislators and officials, whether by other legislators, constituents or organized groups. A legislator (or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws especially someone who is a member of a Legislature. In politics the term constituent has three separate meanings A constituent state or constituent nation is a fundamental part of a union which has come together with others to form [1][2] Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying. [3][4][5]

Contents

Etymology

The supposed origins of the term "lobbyist" vary. The BBC holds that lobbying comes from the gathering of Members of Parliament and peers in the hallways (or lobbies) of Houses of Parliament before and after parliamentary debates. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. Peers is a surname and may refer to Donald Peers Edgar Allison Peers, an English academician Gavin Peers [2] The modern British Parliament was established by the Acts of Union in 1707. One story states that the term originated at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, where it was used by Ulysses S. Grant to describe the political wheelers and dealers frequenting the hotel's lobby in order to access Grant who was often found there, enjoying a cigar and brandy. The Willard InterContinental Washington is an historic luxury Hotel located two blocks east of the White House in Washington D Ulysses S Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant (April 27 1822 &ndash July 23 1885 was an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States [6]

In her book Lobbying and Advocacy: Winning Strategies, Resources, Recommendations, Ethics and Ongoing Compliance for Lobbyists and Washington Advocates [7], Deanna Gelak, a former president of the American League of Lobbyists, quotes an appearance of the term "lobbying" in print as early as 1820:

“

Other letters from Washington affirm, that members of the Senate, when the compromise question was to be taken in the House, were not only "lobbying about the Representatives' Chamber," but were active in endeavoring to intimidate certain weak representatives by insulting threats to dissolve the Union.

”
 
— April 1, 1820, New Hampshire Sentinel

Viewpoints on lobbying

Though many see lobbying as a potential corruption to the system, others disagree. Bill Clinton defended his wife's reception of lobbyist money for her campaign by saying:[8]

“ Lobbyists are registered, they register with the federal government and can give the same amount of money, $2300, anybody else can. William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States That's not going to influence you. What gives the lobbyists influence is the people who hire them for work for them. It's all the people they represent. So all these people who don't take money from lobbyists, they take money from the lobbyists' spouses, their children, their brothers, their sisters, from all the people they represent. It's a distinction without a difference, I think. There's no significance financial gain, because there's not that many lobbyists. If we're going to take money from the guys who pay the lobbyists, why treat them [the lobbyists] as less than full citizens? ”

Economist Thomas Sowell defends corporation's lobbying as it simply being an example of a group having better knowledge of its interests than the people at large do of theirs. Thomas Sowell (born June 30, 1930) is an American Economist, social commentator and author of dozens of books [9]

Lobbying by country

United States

Main article: Lobbying in the United States

Many jurisdictions, in response to concerns of corruption, require the formal registration of lobbyists who come in contact with government representatives. Lobbying in the United States targets the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures Lobbyists may also represent Since 1995, under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act (2 U.S.C. § 1601–1612), most persons who are paid to make direct "lobbying contacts" with members of Congress and officials of the federal executive branch are required to register and file reports twice a year. The Lobbying and Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 USC 1601 was legislation aimed at bringing a level of accountability to federal lobbying practices in the United States. Title 2 of the United States Code outlines the role of Congress in the United States Code. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses

However, there are ongoing conflicts between organizations that wish to impose greater restrictions on lobbying activities, and groups that argue that such restrictions infringe on the right to petition government officials, which is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The right to petition is the freedom of individuals (and sometimes groups and corporations to Petition their government for a correction or repair of some form of The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme Law of the United States.

For example, in January 2004, the U. S. Senate considered S. 1, an omnibus "ethics reform" bill. This bill contained a provision (Section 220) to establish federal regulation, for the first time, of certain efforts to encourage "grassroots lobbying. " The bill said that "'grassroots lobbying' means the voluntary efforts of members of the general public to communicate their own views on an issue to Federal officials or to encourage other members of the general public to do the same. " This provision was opposed by a broad array of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Right to Life Committee, and the National Rifle Association, who argued that attempts by constituents to influence their representatives are at the heart of representational democracy, and that neither such contacts nor efforts to motivate such contacts should be considered "lobbying. The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU) consists of two separate Non-profit organizations the ACLU Foundation a 501(c(3 organization which focuses The National Right to Life Committee is the largest Right to life / Pro-life organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and over The National Rifle Association, or NRA, is a non-profit ( 501(c(4) group dedicated to the protection of the Second Amendment of the " On January 18, 2007, the U. S. Senate voted 55-43 to strike Section 220 from the bill. However, other proposed regulations on "grassroots lobbying" remain under consideration in the 110th Congress.

Another controversial bill, the "Executive Branch Reform Act, H. The "Executive Branch Reform Act" ( is a bill under consideration in the Congress of the United States which would require thousands of federal officials to report R. 985, would require over 8,000 Executive Branch officials to report into a public database nearly any "significant contact" from any "private party. " Although promoted as a regulation on "lobbyists," the bill defines "private party" as "any person or entity" except "Federal, State, or local government official or a person representing such an official. " This, under the proposal, anyone who contacts a covered government official is in effect deemed to be a lobbyist, unless the communicator is another government official or government staff person. The bill defines "significant contact" to be any "oral or written communication (including electronic communication) . . . in which the private party seeks to influence official action by any officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States. " The bill is supported by some organizations as an expansion of "government in the sunshine," but other groups oppose it as an infringing on the right to petition by making it impossible for citizens to communicate their views on controversial issues without having their names and viewpoints entered into a government database. [10] The U.S. Department of Justice has raised constitutional and other objections to the bill. For animal rights group see Justice Department (JD The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ) is a Cabinet department [11]

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected congressional efforts to regulate grassroots communications as a form of "lobbying," on constitutional grounds. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. In 1953, in a suit involving a congressional resolution authorizing a committee to investigate "all lobbying activities intended to influence, encourage, promote, or retard legislation," the Supreme Court narrowly construed "lobbying activities" to mean only "direct" lobbying (which the Court described as "representations made directly to the Congress, its members, or its committees"), and rejected a broader interpretation of "lobbying" out of First Amendment concerns. Year 1953 ( MCMLIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [United States v. Rumely, 345 U. S. 41 (1953). ] The Supreme Court thereby affirmed the earlier decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said:

“

In support of the power of Congress it is argued that lobbying is within the regulatory power of Congress, that influence upon public opinion is indirect lobbying, since therefore attempts to influence public opinion are subject to regulation by the Congress. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, known informally as the D Lobbying, properly defined, is subject to control by Congress, . . . But the term cannot be expanded by mere definition so as to include forbidden subjects. Neither semantics nor syllogisms can break down the barrier which protects the freedom of people to attempt to influence other people by books and other public writings. . . . It is said that lobbying itself is an evil and a danger. We agree that lobbying by personal contact may be an evil and a potential danger to the best in legislative processes. It is said that indirect lobbying by the pressure of public opinion on the Congress is an evil and a danger. That is not an evil; it is a good, the healthy essence of the democratic process. . . .

”
 
— [Rumely v. United States, 197 F. 2d 166, 173-174, 177 (D. C. Cir. 1952). ]

Effectiveness

While determining lobbyists' precise influence over legislative decision-making in the United States can never be fully determined, non-profit organizations such as the Center for Responsive Politics, or Opensecrets, attempt to track money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP is a nonpartisan research group based in Washington D [12]

European Union

History

Lobbying in Brussels was only born in the late 1970s. Brussels (Bruxelles pronounced; Brussel pronounced) officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is 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. The European Parliament ( Europarl or EP) is the only directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) 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. The Single European Act (SEA was the first major revision of the Treaty of Rome that formally established the single European market and the European Political Cooperation A supermajority or a qualified majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level or type of support which exceeds a simple Majority in order to have The Council of the European Union is the principal decision making institution in the European Union (EU In short, the stronger the EU developed from a Member States organization to its 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. Enlargement of the European Union is the process of expanding the European Union (EU through the accession of new member states.

In the wake of the Abramoff scandal in Washington and in light of the massive impact that this had on the lobbying scene in the U.S.A., the rules for lobbying in the EU — which until now only consist of a non-binding code of conduct — may also be tightened[13]. The Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal is a United States political scandal relating to the work performed by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

Current practice

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 European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive branch of the European Union. [14] 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. An interest group (also advocacy group, lobby group, pressure group or special interest group) is an organized collection of people who seek 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. Rapporteur (derived from French is used in international and European legal and political contexts to refer to a person appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue or a situation 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. A Member of the European Parliament ( English abbreviation MEP) is a member of the European Union 's legislative body the European Parliament.

There are currently around 15,000 lobbyists in Brussels (consultants, lawyers, associations, corporations, NGOs etc. Brussels (Bruxelles pronounced; Brussel pronounced) officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is ) 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%), (Lehmann, 2003, pp iii). A think tank (also called a policy institute) is an organization institute corporation or group that conducts Research and engages in advocacy in areas such

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom lobbying traditionally referred to the attempt to influence an MP's vote by either their fellow parliamentary colleagues, by one of their constituents or by any outside organisation. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. Currently the term often refers to the more narrow usage of the operation of "lobbyists" hired to represent the views of an organisation. This industry has been steadily growing in recent years and is now estimated to be worth $1. 9 billion and employ 14000 people. A recent report by the Hansard Society has shown some MPs are approached over 100 times a week. The Hansard Society is the UK's leading independent non-partisan political research and educational charity .

The Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) is a self regulatory body for UK public affairs companies. Its code of conduct promotes 'transparency' and forbids certain practices, such as making payments to MPs. .

In addition to "open" lobbying, the United Kingdom, political parties have been accused of trying to raise campaign funds by offering peerages and other honors. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral Cash for Honours (also Cash for Peerages, Loans for Honours or Loans for Peerages) is the name given by some in the media to a political The Peerage is a system of Titles of Nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. 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 - a very influential position. The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords" An Act of Parliament is a Law enacted as Primary legislation by a national or sub-national Parliament. The rules of Parliament do, however, require participants in debates to 'declare their interest'. The 'sale' of peerages is a criminal offence. In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment To circumvent this law, it is alleged that some contributions thus solicited, are given not as outright gifts but as loans. [15]

France

In France, the political system does not integrate the lobbying practice. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Indeed, owing to Rousseau’s influence, the influence of particular interests is currently considered as bad. State is seen as the only body able to define what French called “general interest”. Actually, lobbying has always been practiced in France. But as far as organised lobbying is concerned, this industry has really appeared in France in the early 1980s. Then, it has been steadily growing in recent years : a lot of interest groups routinely seek to influence the French institutions as the Govnerment and the French Parliament (“National Assembly” and “Senate”). In order to make up the lost time, more and more French enterprises try to organise their own lobbying by creating their own public affairs department. In the recent years, growing grassroots and grasstop lobbyings have been done by citizen groups in several fields such as genetically modified organisms, software piracy. But there is currently no regulation at all for lobbying activities in France and, as a consequence, this practice suffers from a lack of transparency. There is no regulated access to the French institutions and no register. The French Constitution (art. 23 and 79) forbid to members of Parliament to be linked with a particular interest. However, MPs don’t have to declare their interest and the list of MPs assistant is not public. At last, there is no rule at all for consultation of interest groups by the Parliament and the Governement. Nevertheless, a recent parliamentary initiative (motion for a resolution) [16] has been launch by several MPs so as to establish a register for representatives of interest groups and lobbyists who intend to lobby the MPs. The purpose of this initiative is to introduce standards of conduct and access to the National Assembly. Through the use of a register, these standards of conduct and access will enable the Assembly to identify and maintain a list of the representatives of interest groups who follow legislative activity and to supervise fully the access of those representatives to the National Assembly. This motion has not been adopted yet.

Eastern Europe

Only countries where lobbying is regulated in parliament bills are: Georgia (1998), Lithuania (2001) Poland (2005) and Hungary (2006). All require registration of professional lobbyists. So far, there is no complex lobbying regulation in other European countries. There were many attempts, but with no satisfactory results. [17]

References

  1. ^ Merriam-Webster Dictionary.Com entry on lobbying
  2. ^ a b BBC Definition of Lobbying.
  3. ^ Non-Profit Action description of "Lobbying Versus Advocacy: Legal Definitions".
  4. ^ U.S. Senate definition of Lobbying.
  5. ^ Andrew Bounds and Marine Formentinie in Brussels, EU Lobbyists Face Tougher Regulation, Financial Times, August 16, 2007. The Financial Times ( FT) is a British international business Newspaper.
  6. ^ [1] - NPR discussion of Ulysses Grant and origins of the term lobbyist.
  7. ^ Deanna Gelak, Lobbying and Advocacy: Winning Strategies, Resources, Recommendations, Ethics and Ongoing Compliance for Lobbyists and Washington Advocates, TheCapitol. Net, 2008, LobbyingAndAdvocacy. com.
  8. ^ http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=103174&title=bill-clinton-uncut
  9. ^ Sowell, Thomas. Knowledge and Decisions
  10. ^ Memorandum: "Congressman Waxman advances grave new threat to citizens' 'right to petition' government officials," by Douglas Johnson and Susan Muskett, J. Knowledge and Decisions is a non-fiction book by American economist Thomas Sowell. D. , National Right to Life Committee, February 20, 2007.
  11. ^ Letter from Richard D. Hertling, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, U. S. Department of Justice, to the Honorable Henry A. Waxman, Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U. S. House of Representatives, March 8, 2007.
  12. ^ About the Center for Responsive Politics
  13. ^ Green Paper on European Transparency Initiative European Commission, 2006. The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive branch of the European Union. Retrieved August 4, 2007
  14. ^ Kierkegaard, Sylvia (2005) How the Cookie (almost crumbled). Events 70 - The Destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Computer Law and Security Report Vol. 21 Issue 4
  15. ^ Police loans inquiry is widened, BBC.
  16. ^ French National Assembly : Motion for a Resolution on Lobbying (21 November 2006)
  17. ^ GLOSSARY - Alphabetical list of terms associated with the Lobbying industry.

See also

Main article: List of basic public affairs topics

External links

United States

Europe

Dictionary

lobbying

-verb

  1. Present participle of lobby.
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