Half Quos Summary

The two Principles which Stark address are principals that have potential conflict between one another. The first speaks to a government in which the government officials are free from corruption. The second is individuals and groups should robustly be engaged in the full and free expression of their views on matters of public policy. They are in conflict because the ethics of corporate policy activity requires that businesses pursue the second principal while not threatening the first one. Both of these principals are among the core principals of democratic political system. Corruption is inconstant with democratic norms. Democratic officials are entrusted with power given to them by the citizens on the condition that they make decisions

A half quo involves only half of a full quo. Each half quo embodies one half but not the other half of a full-blown type of quo. For example, a corruption can involve a full quo in which the legislator adopts a new position on an agenda, or it can involves one or the other of two half quos. For instance, the legislator might adopt a new position without altering her agenda, or she can alter her agenda without adopting a new position. Although these half-quos do violate the democratic norms, they do not violate the norms to the extent as a full quo. That is why half-quos are not so bad, but Stark goes on to argue that half quo’s are bad. He says that even though half-quos are less violative of the norms, they are still more violative than official conduct that involves no quid pro quo at

The first kind is what he calls “big money” lobbying, because the lobbying raises a large amount of campaign contributions for a legislator from the lobbyist’s corporate clients. The second kind of corporate policy activity is “small information” lobbying. This is where lobbyists are stealing moments to make a pitch for a corporation client in nonofficial social situations. He calls this “small” because the constraints of time , usually for only a few minutes are involved, circumscribes the amount of information that the lobbyist can communicate to the legislator. The third and forth types of lobbying are, “small-money” and “Big information”. “Small money” involves the twenty-five dollar meals on the lobbyist’s tab that some representatives fight to preserve, along with other gifts and favors considered negligible in value. “Big information” Lobbying is where the lobbyist is not merely building a relationship over time in a social setting, but is actually entering the legislators office in closed committee and drafting legislation for the legislator. The next four political activities involves corporate campaign finance. The first two