Does The Government Have Our Best Interests At Heart Essay

In a pluralist democracy like in the United States, interest groups have played a major role throughout the history through highly organized factions and are aimed at different levels of government. Lobbying is one of the tactics of the interest groups to aid their agenda through implementing new laws and regulations. "If you want to have your face in the light, you should have your back in the dark". Similarly, the influences of the interests groups and lobbyists have good and bad effects on the people and the society.

Dating back many decades, it appears that lobbying and politics have always gone hand and hand on any political stage. Lobbying has always had a strong presence in the legislation system. Lobbying is the process of offering campaign contributions, bribes, or information to policymakers for the purpose of achieving favorable policy outcomes. Conventional wisdom suggests that lobbying is the preferred mean for exerting political influence in rich countries and corruption in poor countries. The legislation is meant to benefit society and ensure that citizens are having their voices heard, instead of hindering them in favour of the multi-national corporations. Lobbying has a negative influence on legislations in both developed and developing

That ensures that the decisions being made by all and any levels of government are made with the people’s best interest in mind.

The controversy surrounding political lobbying does not question the act of influencing public officials, but rather the ethics relating to how these public officials are influenced. It is important to distinguish the fine line between bribery and lobbying. It is illegal to bribe a public official in the United States. This would mean that an individual could not provide compensation to a public official for them to behave, or vote, in a specific manner. Lobbyists may donate money to a specific candidate’s political campaign, but they may only do so when there is no expectation that the public official will behave in a favorable way toward the lobbyist or their clients (Mackinder). Lobbyists may bring public officials, their immediate families, and staff on trips or out to dinner. While it is illegal for a lobbyist representing a corporate client from directly bringing, it is not illegal for foreign governments to sponsor for these said trips (Goldmacher). What has begun to happen is lobbyists representing corporate clients may bring public officials on these trips, if the trip is sponsored by a foreign government. The Senate Office of Public Records reported that $3.23 billion was spent on lobbying in 2013, with 12,300 registered lobbyists. Professor James Thurber, who teaches at American University, has studied congressional lobbying for over 30 years, and does not believe these figures are accurate. He believes

Both sides of the topic have gripping reasons why they feel the way they do. The supporters believe that lobbying is acceptable and contributes to a healthy democracy. In this light, lobbyists are simply seeking power within governmental and public affairs. In the United States our political system is based on power, authority, and legitimacy. One of our nation’s values is the fact that people can and should try to influence our political system; individuals have the power to bring attention to important issues, matters of public concern, and current problems. Supports argue that lobbying cannot contribute to the demise of American democracy. All these factors contribute to what is our political system and lobbyists are arguably doing their best to advocate for the people, even if huge sums of money are involved.

In a normal government we expect the government to look out for the people that they are governing, but in this case they didn't watch out for their people at all. For example. In 1786, Shays' Rebellion occurred in western Massachusetts as a protest to rising debt and economic chaos. However, the national government was unable to gather a combined military force amongst the states to help put down the rebellion (kelly). During this event when the chaos broke out many people that were not part of the protest got hurt and the government couldn't control that.

Our country was colonize by settlers that were looking for a way OUT of their own country in which leaders had too much power they were escaping dictatorship. They knew the consequences of leaders having too much power, which they suffer in their own skin sure this was one the first reasons they decided to leave in perused of freedoms that they didn’t have. With this being set when the time came to delegate power to the government they were sure not to give too much power to no one part of the government, limiting the power of the president not only to prevent their past to repeat but to also create a different type of government that they have never experience before. The limited power of the president is a great strategy of our funding

I feel that money is an important factor to lobbyist whose connection with people at the top is crucial. Representative Lloyd Doggett agrees that in most cases, “All the lobbying is focused on a handful of people at the top”(Wayne, NYT, 10/01/01). It seems to me that major corporations have an easier time

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master.” -George Washington

The American government makes many decisions, which are influenced by many things. Occasionally these policies work out, but some of these policies that do not have the attended effect on the country. The Americans that have get the bad side of these policies have to fight to be heard and have their daily lives drastically altered. A great example of the downside of interests creating policies is the Flint Michigan water crisis. This incident occurred because interests were held above the the ideas and institutions of the public.

Since the beginning of humanity, there have always been the rulers, and the ruled. The rulers have always been the government, and the ruled has always been the people. One would believe that the government would be truthful and be interested in their people's well being, but clearly, this is not the case. In fact, lies are often more common than the truth. Facts are changed based on the governing party's current needs. The government wants to control their people, to have an unquestioning, thoughtless population that make them more powerful, as this is their main priority. As a generalisation, the government is more interested in their well-being than that of the people who drive it.

The government can tend to lie to it’s people, and it is appropriate to go against the government when they do. The United States government was set up to be run by the people, not just the powerful people, but everyone. “After all, the practical reason why, when the power

Ronald Reagan once said, “Government’s first job is to protect the people, not run their lives.” In many ways, this statement applies to governments all around the world. People deserve the freedom to participate in the government, live their lives in peace, and not have the strict rules of the government keep them from doing so. However, in some cases, the government does need to control people’s lives to a certain degree to keep people and their rights safe.

Being the president who set out to escape the norms in achieving my goals for the American public and securing the national interests, I have persevered and illustrated periods of triumphs and have endured times of oppositions. Nonetheless, there have been improvements and disagreements throughout my time in the office. Over the course of these previous eight years, America has observed persistence in job increases, greater transparency, formidable economic growth, and an increase in jobs in the auto industry (Jackson). In a matter of time, I will be stepping out of the office and handing over my position to president-elect Donald TrumpI hope to have made a difference in the lives of the American public during my time in the office.

Sometimes a lobbyist can only get a couple minutes of their time, so the lobbyist must be prepared to make what they are going to say to persuade them fast. Lobbyist usually provide arguments, confirmation, and research to maintain their group situations. Many government officials don’t have time to research the issues themselves, so they depend on the information that interest groups and lobbyists provide to keep them informed and up to speed. Even though persuasion is a very important part of lobbying, interest groups also provide some material incentives to government officials. Also, what wealthy interest groups usually do is contribute to campaigns, and run advertisements to reach their goal. Another useful method interest groups use to accomplish what they want is boycotting, or declining to purchase an organizations