Transparent Lobbying And Democracy

"The authors come up with some innovative tools, namely the “Catalogue of transparent lobbying”. They look at and evaluate the impact on both key stakeholders (lobbyists and targets of lobbying), monitoring of lobbying activities and sanctioning for breaches of rules. This tool holds out benchmarking capacity of sound framework for understanding of lobbying in the context of democracy, legitimacy of decision-making and accountability."David Ondráčka, member of global Board of Transparency International, head of Transparency International, Czech Republic "Transparent Lobbying and Democracy provides a comprehensive view into the phenomenon of lobbying... As a well-established scientist specializing in democracy, civil society and the public sphere, I see it as a useful and enriching contribution to the debate on lobbying, its necessary transparency and its role in the democratization process. This book has the potential to reach an international audience of experts and interested lay persons, and both complement and compete with publications on similar issues."Karel B. Müller, University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic This book deals with the current, as yet unsolved, problem of transparency of lobbying. In the current theories and prevalent models that deal with lobbying activities, there is no reflection of the degree of transparency of lobbying, mainly due to the unclear distinction between corruption, lobbying in general, and transparent lobbying. This book provides a perspective on transparency in lobbying in a comprehensive and structured manner. It delivers an interdisciplinary approach to the topic and creates a methodology for assessing the transparency of lobbying, its role in the democratization process and a methodology for evaluating the main consequences of transparency. The new approach is applied to assess lobbying regulations in the countries of Central Eastern Europe and shows a method for how lobbying in other regions of the world may also be assessed.

Lobbying, as a way to influence and inform governments, has been part of democracy for at least two centuries, and remains a legitimate tool for influencing public policies. However, it carries risks of undue influence.

Do transparency and publicity have the power to civilise politics? In deliberative democratic theory this is a common claim. Publicity, it is argued, forces actors to switch from market-style bargaining to a behaviour more appropriate for the political sphere, where the proper way of reaching agreement is by convincing others using public-spirited arguments. Daniel Naurin has conducted the first comprehensive analysis and test of the theory of publicity's civilising effect. The theory is tested on business lobbyists - presumably the most market-oriented actors in politics - acting on different arenas characterised by varying degrees of transparency and publicity. Innovative scenario-interviews with lobbying consultants in Brussels and in Stockholm are compared and contrasted with a unique sample of previously confidential lobbying letters. The results are both disappointing and encouraging to deliberative democratic theorists. While the positive force of publicity seems to be overrated, it is found that even behind closed doors business lobbyists must adapt to the norms of the forum.

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - Political Systems - General and Comparisons, grade: 1,33, Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH, language: English, abstract: Accessibility of the policy-making processes for third party agent’s increases countries level of democratic governance. Ideally chances to influence officials should not depend on wealth of the interest group. However common ways to impact government decisions include professional lobbying (Rowbottom, 2010, p.79). Professional lobbyists are accused of influencing public policy formation for self-serving purposes by means of not only knowledge transfer but also offering financial support to the targeted government official or political party. Government officials choose which people to meet with and receive advice from. This subjective choice gives varying opportunities that result in decision-making power to different interest groups (Rowbottom, 2010, p. 78). The public’s confidence in how public policies are being formatted has been shaken by repeated reports on lobbyist’s corruption. In recent years the regulation of lobbying has become a major challenge for modern liberal democracies world-wide. Democracies, relying on trust and support of their citizenry are threatened to loose legitimacy due to professional lobbying. The question this paper examines is in how far lobbying needs to be recognized as an indicator for democratic governance and whether it is measurable as such. At first characteristics and the scope of lobbying shall be defined to provide the necessary framework for further discussion of the topic. Second, when assessing democratic governance empirical measures for indicators are essential components of analysis. Therefore the measurability of lobbying shall be addressed in the second part of the paper. Third, approaches to regulate lobbyist profession to ensure higher levels of democratic governance shall be examined. Lastly, the case of the European Union shall be analyzed to exemplify successes and loop-holes of the existing regulatory measures and conclude about the importance of lobbying as an indicator when examining the democratic process.

Lobbying, as a way to influence and inform governments, has been part of democracy for at least two centuries, and remains a legitimate tool for influencing public policies. However, it carries risks of undue influence. Lobbying in the 21st century has also become increasingly complex, including new tools for influencing government, such as social media, and a wide range of actors, such as NGOs, think tanks and foreign governments. This report takes stock of the progress that countries have made in implementing the OECD Principles for Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying. It reflects on new challenges and risks related to the many ways special interest groups attempt to influence public policies, and reviews tools adopted by governments to effectively safeguard impartiality and fairness in the public decision-making process.

Can interest groups and lobbyists arguably undemocratic institutions operate in democratic systems without hindering the people s interests? Karolina Karr s "Democracy and Lobbying in the European Union" explores the role and potential impact of interest groups on democracy, both in theory and practice, in the context of a changing continent. This timely volume explores how the power of interest groups has developed due to the growing distance between elected representatives and the European people and forecasts what this development might mean for the vitality of government."

Political corruption contributes to the decline of citizens' trust and confidence in democracy and weakens democratic principles and processes. The contributions in this book identify risks that corruption poses to the future of democracy in Europe, and propose a wide range of measures for action which are aimed at preventing political corruption (including undue influence on the justice system), enhancing transparency and accountability, and rebuilding confidence in democracy.--Publisher's description.

'We need effective citizen-lobbyists – not just likers, followers or even marchers – more than ever. I have no hesitation in lobbying you to read this book.' Bill Emmott, former editor in chief, the Economist Many democratic societies are experiencing a crisis of faith. Citizens are making clear their frustration with their supposedly representative governments, which instead seem driven by the interests of big business, powerful individuals and wealthy lobby groups. What can we do about it? How do we fix democracy and get our voices heard? The answer, argues Alberto Alemanno, is to become change-makers – citizen lobbyists. By using our skills and talents and mobilizing others, we can bring about social and political change. Whoever you are, you've got power, and this book will show you how to unleash it. From successfully challenging Facebook's use of private data to abolishing EU mobile phone roaming charges, Alberto highlights the stories of those who have lobbied for change, and shows how you can follow in their footsteps, whether you want to influence immigration policy, put pressure on big business or protect your local community.