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The following was originally published as a class assignment:
How does lobbying work in government? Please use examples.
Include citations or URLs for your work to receive full credit. Post your response before Friday, and reply to the posts of at least two of your classmates before Sunday midnight.
To lobby the government is to attempt to present a concern or group of concerns to various individual or groups of legislators. Lobbyists can be individuals representing the public, civic groups, or business; there are also professional lobbyists that perform the communication between the individuals/groups and the legislators. Lobbyists can represent themselves in a public forum and/or have a single representative for private meetings with the legislators being lobbied. Lobbying can occur at any level of government and even within government houses with lower legislators attempting to appeal to the higher levels of government.
Lobbying has gotten negative attention over the years as many legislators have been influenced by lobbyists for a cause through the use of gifts and donations to campaign funds. To combat these negative practices there have been many resolutions passed to regulate lobbying practices. One of the most recent acts involving lobbying is the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. This act calls for punishment of former legislators abusing their privileges of visiting Congress for the purposes of lobbying. The act also changed how lobbying reports are disclosed by increasing the frequency of reports and lowering the amounts required to be reported for political contributions.
References
[...sorry, can't afford to go long-winded on this one... may do a complete revision later this week, if time allows.]
The following responses came from this forum posting:
Prof. Keith Carlson: Are there any situations where lobbying is a good thing?
my reply:
...it's all a matter of perspective, honestly.
...any person has the right to raise a concern with their government over an issue which they see to be unfair or wrong in some way. This person may also recruit others who feel the same way, so that there can then be a louder communal voice representing the cause. This newly formed group can seek out other groups of people sharing the same view and create a movement. The movement can then get greater attention and have stronger power in lobbying the government for change.
...this can be a good thing.
Women's suffrage. Racial equality. These two issues are, for the most part, seen as good examples of how positive lobbying can be. The reason why these issues show cause for lobbying being a "good thing" is that we agreed on these issues.
...I do not dare go into giving any other examples as I do not know which way the compass points for the rest of the class...
...but, in my opinion lobbying is (almost) always a good thing as it has the potential of raising discussion.
Ryan McFarland: Jeremiah, thank you for introducing that acts are now put in place to regulate lobbying. I did not know of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. It is interesting how people can be bought for as little as support in a campaign. What is our country coming to? What is the punishment for indivisuals who abuse their privileges?
Michael Baker: Hi Jeremiah,
Nice post!, The Honest Leadership Act is interesting and I think it is very important in improving politics and accountability. I think with these acts, it will help curve bribery in politics which influences another party or organization to overlook the rules or boundaries, rather than working with them. Bribery is the act of giving favor to someone in power so that your work gets done. It can be said without any doubt that bribery in no way is ethical or moral and it cannot hold grounds.
Resource Cited: Encarta (, 2009). Define Bribery. Retrieved from http://www.bing.com/dictionary[1]. Tags: #American Public University, #APUS, #college, #POLS210, #school
1: http://www.bing.com/dictionary
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