Lobbying is corruption

Isamu

Conflating two things. Actually lobbying is the act of trying to persuade by meeting with a representative. Campaign contributions are also a way of persuading but are separate. I say this because you could make monetary contributions illegal and lobbying would still be legal and ethical. We talk about campaign contributions as a separate issue and they have been treated in the courts separately. I agree that putting strict limits on campaign finance is an important battle that is still ahead of us. Campaign finance is [currently] corrupt. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

dauertewigkeit

Americans please stop sanctifying Europe/Europeans. It's annoying.

pavinjoseph

I'm surprised by all the lobbying-apologists in the comments!

FallCheeta7373

I would take public lobbying anyday over outlawing it like where I live and it being restricted to people who have enough money to do it behind closed doors.

pockybum522

It's crazy that we need this article. It's just bribery with a single extra step. I never understood how everyone thought this was normal while growing up.

jmathai

Lobbying is teriboe and the explanation cited is good for those unfamiliar. Also, political ads in the U.S. have become so obnoxious. I don’t know how it is elsewhere. Ads in the U.S. are personal attacks at the opponents character or lies about them. There is currently an ad about how an opposing politician supports sex change surgery without parent consent. Nothing is believable about the ad - yet somehow it’s not slander or libel. This is the ad. https://youtu.be/WFISHnLCmms

speerer

If I had an opinion on an issue but no dog in the fight; and if I were to explain my opinion to politicians in the hope they might learn from or even share it -- I may well be "lobbying", but I don't believe I'd be corrupt.

singularity2001

Glad that this pops up again because someone flagged a similar discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50029630

oytis

Not sure where in Europe the author lives, but in Germany we absolutely have lobbying, "donations", "connections" and politicians meandering between corporations and public offices that are meant to regulate the same corporations, all without any consequences

claaams

Americans on average are too stupid and too easily manipulated for this to ever be a matter of concern for them though.

u1hcw9nx

Basic internet response to everything is that when something essential involves something bad, we should forget the nuance and use slogans "X is BAD". I want to push back against that. Lobbying is not corruption. All interest groups should have the ability to talk to lawmakers and present their viewpoints. That is essential for good lawmaking. It should be open (and is in the EU) with lobby registers (author uses lobbying as a synonym for corporate lobbying, confusing the issues). Lobbying easily involves corruption, and that has to be constantly worked against (Qatargate, Cash for Amendments in 2011) for example. Hiring EU lawmakers after they leave the office should have long cooldown limits. Current problems with EU lobbying: Corporate lobbying is over 60% of registered lobby spending. Civil society interest groups, consumer groups, and labor unions have less money. Revolving doors, astroturfing from foreigin states and corporations, and too much reliance on self-declaration in transparency register. These can be all solved: mandatory meeting disclosures, declaration of private interests and assets, MEPs should be banned on paid lobbying activities, and long cooling-off periods before MEPs can become lobbyists, independent refinforcement, public annex for all directives and regulation listing interest groups involved. People should care and make these political issues.

roenxi

There are typically two words for every act in English - the positive and negative spin (bribery, lobbying). Lobbying is lobbying because the elites consider it to be within the bounds of fair play. In some sense it isn't bribery because bribery is the act but when it is illegal. And although lobbying is generally bad public lobbying is a much healthier equilibrium than what a lot of countries do - everyone playing pretend that the government officials are acting out of some sense of noblesse oblige and there aren't powerful interest groups. Humans don't work that way, they've never worked that way and the whole idea that they might is quite likely a propaganda campaign by some very ugly people who would never be allowed to hold power if there was any level of public debate on what they were doing. There is a huge issue here that alternative approaches must address - if wealthy, powerful people can't get what they want within the system then they'll destabilise the system until they can. The poor and powerless have, over the millennia, proven far too disorganised and unprincipled to stop the wealthy and powerful. It is almost always factional conflicts between wealthy, powerful people that move the status quo around.

rayiner

> Corporations and rich people give money to politicians. Not directly, of course: to their campaigns. It is illegal under U.S. federal law for corporations to give money to campaigns.

t43562

The man on the street may not understand the problems of companies that manufacture components for e.g. airliners. Those industries probably do need to be able to communicate what's affecting them and the government probably does need to at least consider such things in the overall plan. The question might be: how much do we need to consider it. e.g. Big tobacco - should we care if they die out completely? Us little guys probably want to hear the contents of those meetings so we can check that they do make sense. Private influencing is dangerous. We also don't want people going from the Ministry of Defence or the Army straight into working for a defence company - that should be illegal and yet it happens a lot here in the UK. Civil servants and politicians should get a comfortable pension and be unemployable for 3 years after their term.

dgellow

Lobbying is an essential part of the EU. It’s a regulated activity, with its whole processes. I have no idea why the author believes it’s something Europeans aren’t familiar with

shevy-java

> It is not a bribe, because a bribe would be illegal. But it is a bribe. It is not the fault of the people if legislation has been undermined in democracies to suit the rich. This is a problem pretty much all democracies have, to varying extent.

yapyap

Lobbying happens in Europe too, it sucks

fc417fc802

Sure, and scientific articles which often require payment to publish are a form of paid advertisement. /s

timedude

How far up the corruption chain do you want to go? Government itself is corruption.

srvo

Strong agree -- lobbying spend is a huge signal of corporations associated with preventable harms. We use it extensively at ethical capital.