How Lobbying And How Is It Regulated On The Federal Level?

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

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

One is putting money towards the campaigns of Congressmen and women that either support their shared ideals. This is not the buying of votes though as it is seen to the public eye that would be a waste of funds to go about trying to pass policy that way. Hall and Waymen argue that interest groups and PAC money that is used to back certain candidate in election is not to buy votes but to mobilize the legislative process. “Simply put, interest group resources are intended to accomplish something different from, and more than, influencing elections or buying votes…we argue that PAC money should be allocated in order to mobilize legislative support and demobilization opposition, particularly at the most important point in the legislative process.” That is only one way that they influence congress. Public support is another. If an interest group can gather enough public support behind their issues they can effect change in government policy. For example the NAACP in its fight for civil rights. Interest groups work with the government to push policy. Without the government some interest groups would exist because of the government grants that they receive. Other groups can be led by an organization, single person or by

Many controversial topics have surfaced recently, but one that tends to fly under the radar is lobbying. Lobbying is defined as a group of persons who work or conduct a campaign to influence members of a legislature to vote according to a group’s special interests (“Lobby”). Although average citizens are not fully aware of the issue, it is quite contentious in politics. For those who are against it, they believe that restrictions should be placed on lobbying because it distorts democracy. Lobbyists use money and cost-effective strategies to sway the opinions of lawmakers. Others see lobbyists as effective, political tour guides who help pass legislation. An analysis of the lobbying process reveals the outcomes are often

Lobbying is an issue that has recently found itself at the forefront of the American politics. Many feel that lobbying is essentially a legalized form of bribery and has lead to the government catering to the needs of special interests instead of the interests of America at large. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 74% of Americans believe that elected officials place their own interests ahead of the country's. So it seems many Americans wonder who their representatives are actually representing. Lee Drutman, a political scientist, compares the current situation of

Lobbying of government institution affects congress members simply because there is a steady flow of information being put upon them from different lobby groups for a certain topic. The utilization of likely overall power from the individuals on persuasion is an important part of the lobbying of government institutions. Grassroots of mobilization deals with the individual level raise attention to a specific topic in the community. This mobilization can affect the voting outcome from the congressmen running for that community. If the community doesn't get the wanted results from the congressman, they are not going to vote for him/her. The effect of public policies are clearly shown in the Lobbying of government institution and the Grassroots

On the other hand, going to the public and using electoral politics is used by outsider strategies. However, several groups apply a mix of insider and outsider strategies. These groups employ lobbyist members participate in making government decisions in favor of their group. In the textbook is says, "Lobbying is a strategy by which organized interests seek to influence the passage of legislation by exerting direct pressure on members of the legislature" (Champagne 445). People believe that people who influence the government has a direct contact with them. Nonetheless, lobbyists not only engage with all sorts of governments, on the other hand they also deal with the public too. Several of the people, lobbyist’s influences are Congress, the President, and the Executive Branch. Lobbying helps an interest group by somebody speaking of an interest, and the lobbyists aim to influence policy makers in a variety of ways. Lobbyists also try to influence the public with their cause. They will advertise to people such as animal protectionist will raise awareness that we should laws of protecting endangered animals living in the world. Several groups will go to the public when they do not have the resources, the contacts, or the experience to use other

Public interest lobbies form a linkage element between citizens and governmental elites. In lobbying they articulate what they perceive to be the issue positions of certain sectors of society. Public interest groups also play an important role in facilitating the political participation of their members and related attentive publics. By helping to bring new issues to the table, interest groups influence the shape of political agendas.

Billions of dollars are spent by thousands of lobbyists that work within Congress each year to see if they can alter or eliminate federal policies that they feel need are no longer needed or that need to be modified. Does the influence of money make it possible for the lobbyist to be more effective in changing the federal policies? This is a question that has been asked many times and with different points of views and opinions. It is sometimes said the person with the most money has the most influence but I don’t believe that that is always true.

Wayne, Lasser, Miller and others tend to agree that lobbyists and PACs have a great amount of influence over congress members because they may have direct connections and give campaign contributions. Recently, the airlines industry convinced congress to pass a $15 billion aid package it needs in order to survive. “The airlines had plenty of resources to draw on: 27 in-houses lobbyists, augmented by lobbyists from 42 Washington firms, including former White House aides and transportation secretaries, as well as the airlines own chief executives and corporate board members, whom all are well known in the halls of congress”(Wayne, NYT, 10/01/01. Lasser, American Politics, 1999. Miller, The American Prospect, 10/23/00. Geiger, Washington Post, 11/4-10/91.)

Lobbyists often deal with legislators and members of regulatory agencies. Although legislators are brought together in Congress to develop policy and serve the national interests, each legislator is first and foremost responsible to their own constituency. This superseding responsibility gives lobbyists their ammunition. Attempting to influence Congress as a whole is not only impossible, but would be too easily seen by the public and thus might attract attention to an already questionable facet of our political process. Metaphorically speaking, Congress’s armor is strong and impenetrable when they are united as one. Lobbyists stand no chance against this fortified body of legislators. Instead they go after individual legislators, utilizing a strategy that if successful, creates

Some students don’t know the purpose of lobbying or what it is used for. Almost all of the candidates in the 2016 election took money from lobbyists (except for Trump, who is a billionaire himself). APLAC students will read this book and realize exactly how big companies influence politicians. Koch Industries was able to lobby successfully and it and is described thoroughly in the book. The Koch brothers failed with their Libertarian ideas, but they can still keep them alive by giving money to politicians to influence their decisions. This is shown in the book and will be intriguing to the

Today, in addition to the tools of the past, they also have some help from the 21st century. Social media is a key factor used to drum up support for their causes and beliefs which help to reach more people. In doing so, special interest groups can persuade the masses about a topic and have them make a grumble which would be sufficiently loud enough to catch the attention of their representative. In turn, influencing members of Congress.

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