Lobbyism In Politics Research Paper

The structure of our government is complex. With local, state, and federal levels of government, it can be confusing to understand how the government works. Luckily, Morris Fiorina wrote a document about the structure of the government called The Rise of the Washington Establishment. The Washington establishment simply refers to big government workers such as, included but not limited to, house representatives, senators, congressmen, and party leaders. These legislators and bureaucrats are the ones who run the government and establish laws. In his document, Fiorina argued that these people are in office only for personal gains. He strongly focused on congress, in which he believes they act in favor of their reelection. Power, money, and insurance benefits are the main influences that motivate congressmen to hold their position. Governmental representatives are supposed to reflect the values of the people, but they ultimately act in a selfish manor. The Rise of the Washington Establishment analyzes how congressmen act for their own self-interest.

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

I believe the five pathways for change were put here to guide us in becoming a more efficient government and to give different examples of how to go about change in America. All of the pathways are important but to me the most important is the lobbying decision makers’ pathway. “Lobbyists are said to be advocates, someone who represents a specific side of an issue. According to Thomson Gale Legal Encyclopedia, A lobbyist and a lawyer have similar attributes whereas the lobbyist targets the legislative point of view and the lawyer targets the judicial point of view. Lawyers provide facts on different perspectives on legal issues dealing with the case; And lobbyist offer local, state, and federal

The inter workings of Congress have been studied extensively by Richard Fenno and David R. Mayhew. Mayhew’s study of Congress took place in Washington, while Richard Fenno conducted his research by following politicians within their congressional district. Mayhew attributes three primary goals to congressmen- getting reelected, achieving influence within Congress and making “good Policy”. Fenno also attributes three basic goals, having influence inside the House than other congressmen. Second, helping their constituents and thereby insuring their reelection, and lastly helping make good policy. The purpose of this paper is to research a member of Congress and to make a direct connection between his activity in Washington and his home district. The paper will answer whether the congressmen is a delegate or trustee. Are the actions a pursuit for reelection? Are the committee assignments a path for movement within the House or outside? What legislation has he/she sponsored or co-sponsored and does it directly reflect his/her districts political view. And finally, do major industries and interest groups within his/she district affect the way he/she votes.

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

Moreover, the Schoolhouse Rock presentation identified the major committees that play a vast role within legislation, but furthermore failed to acknowledge the significant influence of interest groups, lobbyist, and campaign contributors. Interest groups are pertinent to the legislation process because of their vast influence. While interest groups strive to “influence public policy” to benefit its members, it accomplishes this task by using inside strategies that “pursue a narrow policy of change and directly influence legislation” and through its relationship within the iron triangle that works to “seal off” external influencers that are irrelevant to the groups view towards public policy; thus leaving a “closed

The United States has experienced fundamental changes that are dramatically detrimental to democracy. Voters’ ability to define political discourse has been so diminished that even decisive election results like Barack Obama’s in 2012 have little impact. That’s because powerful interests — freed to, in effect, buy elections, unhindered by downsized and diffused media that must rely on revenue from campaign ads — now set the rules of engagement. Lobbying involves working to bring pressure to bear on policy makers to gain favorable policy outcomes. In order to accomplish their goals, interest groups develop a strategy or plan of action and execute it through specific tactics. The particular strategies developed and the specific tactics used, however, vary widely both among and within political

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

In the book, Parenti mentions the relationship that lobbyist's have with Congress. Many of these political congressmen are representing the majority's vote because lobbyists are attempting to pursuade congressmen to adopt beliefs with items like salary produce. This is the practical science behind the policies that are passed in congress. Now, this is an example of what goes behind the scenes of how policies are passed in todays day of age. A policy that relates to this topic is the attempt to spur a clean revolution. Bill gates on the other hand used his profile to influence and propose public subsidies to lawmakers. This correalates with the attempt to pass a policy because figures that are powerful undermine the voices of the public.

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.)

Many times the American people have asked themselves why certain topics take precedent over other topics that may seem worthy of attention. The common speculation is that money from special interest groups have infiltrated re-election campaigns are the ones who really have the power and last say on what occurs in government. Many people have campaigned in order to pass a reform that would disclose how a political campaign is funded or set a limitation on how much can be donated to a specific campaign. Some people may argue that doing so may infringe on the rights of voters and their decision on how much to donate or that it prevents individuals from expressing their opinions on political issues, but by not having rules in place on what can

After reading Alexander, Mike, and Michelle’s opinions as to why President Trump decided to appoint Scott Pruitt as the lead of the Environmental Protection Agency, I agree with the first two and oppose the latter. Alexander’s opinions are exemplified through Trumps actions; the appointment of Pruitt leads to the deregulation of the environment, the assumption that energy related jobs will return, and is believed to create relationships and interactions among energy firms. Mike helps further illustrate Alexander’s opinion because these relationships allow for lobbyist to persuade already sympathetic legislators to vote on their favor. Though lobbyist may persuade, they are limited in that they cannot force a legislator to do anything.

Intro: In the United States government, the people should be represented by elected officials. In reality, they are not. Elections are decided by the media and propaganda as well as the size of a candidate’s budget, and actions of politicians are dictated by corporations.

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

Inherent within democracy are expansionary pressures. Olson (1965) argued in ‘The Logic of Collective Action’ that small groups with concentrated interests will prevail over large groups with diffuse interests, who tend to suffer from free-rider problems. Special interest groups will tend to successfully lobby for subsidies and other favourable government actions (and they have the incentive to do so), while the tax-paying public will not have the incentive to block these changes as the costs of collective action outweigh the individuals benefits. US Senator Tom Coburn produces the ‘Wastebook’ every year, showing some of the more ridiculous examples of such special interest lobbying activity in America and the logic of collective action