Lobbying is an act of persuading the decision makers or law makers, during the legislation process. There are people called lobbyists who are like sales people to persuade the lawmakers in making law or decision in the favor of the interest groups. Lobbying plays an important role in the decision making process as it represents voice of large group of community or people who will be directly affected by that law or decision. So, Lobbyist performs functions like filing petitions to the government or congress to hear the voice of people. The lobbying is working as a form of industry and is protected by 1st amendment of rights to speech, assembly and petition by U.S constitution. According to the Washington DC expert Cooper R. “Professional lobbyist …show more content…
This industry has created a lot of job opportunities. Approximately 10000 lobbyist are employed. So, lobbying represents voice of the people to law marker as well as creating employment opportunities. It is not good to say that lobbyists are people or interest groups working to make decisions in their favor because they also need to comply with their laws that vary by jurisdiction. They have to report their activities .Generally, they don’t have to report their expenditure of over $114 per day (Ross, R.) .It cannot be assumed that lobbyists could persuade legislator to change a vote for a nice meal or gesture. I believe that legislator have their monopoly if they were not any group or body that aware them step by step. Interest groups have very vivid limitations on money that they can contribute to campaign. So, they are there just to take the voice of the people to legislator. Therefore, I don’t think that the government should place more rigid limitations and more oversight on the interest groups even who have access to greater funds. Making more rigid limitations for an equal count of voices could diminish the voices of those workers, laborers, professional people, and businessman. Government should work more to create space or working environment to those people than to make rigid rules and regulations making their daily life harder to
“Lobbying groups would be able to finance lawmakers' travel as long as those funds were channeled through a nonprofit foundation. And almost all banned perks would still be permitted if given in the context of a campaign fundraiser(Arkush).” The watchdogs almost seem pointless if there are loopholes to allow lobbyist to continue to abuse corporation’s like Jack Abramoff did to the Indian tribes. Through loopholes lobbyist and lobbying groups are still allowed to take lawmakers on golf junkets due to their nonprofit foundation affiliations, even though travel is banned, it is acceptable because of the nonprofit foundation affiliations. Restrictions on lobbying need to be tightened even more due to the fact of the loopholes allowing lobbyist to continue to waste money on bribing lawmakers and other government officials.
Essentially, interest groups use many different tactics to accomplish their central goals but this paper will detail 2 of them. The first being lobbying, which is the act of persuading businesses as well as government leaders to help a specific organization by changing laws or creating events in favor of that group. Interest groups use this technique by hiring someone to represent them and advocate their cause to on the behalf of the entire group. These hired representatives usually have more than enough experience within the political field and are able to persuade connections within the government for help with their concerns. This method gets a lot of criticism because although lobbyist offer their input to government officials on pending laws, they only look at what is favorable for their cause. When trying to make a difference you have to not only reflect on your argument but on the side affects of that argument as
The past few years, I’ve taken an interest into our constitution. As a result of this interest, I would at times sift through interesting Supreme Court cases. Tinker v. Des Moines and Johnson v. Texas would, to some, conflict with cases like Schenck v. United States. The line drawn on the issue of free speech to others may be blurry, but to me, it has always been crystal clear. So when Super PACs, Political Action Committees that can donate unlimited funds to an independent cause, arose, I concurred with the Supreme Court’s decision to protect free speech. To most it seems, Super PACs are just evil PACs, and they, unlike regular PACs, ruin elections. They really only differ by their method, however, when discussing the movement of money. Super PACs are run “independently”, and PACs are usually partisan.
Interest groups, lobbyists, large corporations, and PACs try to influence the congressional committees' bills so they can have a say in the legislative process. When an interest group hears about a bill that is being debated on in a committee, they try to influence a members vote and they try to get a part of the bill changed. For example, a lobbyist came to me on a bill I proposed on making health care plans have no minimum requirement on benefits the company gives to its patients. He told me about how he did not get the right treatments and tests done on diseases he has and now is suffering badly from them. It was because the health plan did not have to give him anything extra. He changed my mind on the bill, and I changed the bill to setting a minimum standard on benefits given to patients.
Interest groups going to the legislature trying to bring awareness to their group is called lobbying. Lobbyists try to influence officials working in all three branches and in the federal bureaucracy. The legislative branch has the most interaction with lobbyist considering the congress and the senate can change and create laws that effect each interest group. Interest groups spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to lobby members of Congress on a range of issues. The Executive branch of government deals with interests groups in the main way of dealing with the masses.
The parliament is where laws are made in the UK. The laws often made apply to England and at times areas in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their decisions come from different sources and pressure on the parliament can often change their ideas on policies. The government is who normally puts laws forward and introduces them. If the laws do not derive from them, they are from pressure groups, the media or law commission. Other pressures are present inside as well as outside the parliament, such as, the Royal Commission and the European Union.
The pharmaceutical industry has a high stake in the passage of laws and they protect their interests by maintaining a substantial presence of lobbyists. In 2010, there were approximately 3,000 health care lobbyists in Washington (Attkisson). Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is a trade group that represents 48 pharmaceutical companies and is one of the largest lobbying groups in Washington. They currently represent some of the largest pharmaceutical companies including Bayer HealthCare LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., and Pfizer (PhRMA).
After our discussion Rick formed a meeting to begin organizing a lobby group. They created an agenda which included an invite of social service agencies to the meeting to discuss suggestions from them on how to develop a lobby group. They prepared a mission statement believing it will unite the group, as well as provide focus and draw attention to the lobby group. In this meeting the five set up an outline that involved organizing the group to address the needs of people with disabilities and how the inequality and stigma they face creates social barriers. They chose to focus on the challenges that Rick and the initial six members were experiencing which are lack funding by the government in the way of inadequate assistance for housing, personal finances and jobs. In this meeting they decided to recruit members through the local paper, the recreation center and door to door canvassing. One of the members suggested using social media and the United Way offered to help by placing a thread on their web page. The six members share their personal stories via a video on the website. The website would be filled with current information about the effects on society when there is lack of adequate resources in a city and have a discussion forum and sign up tab. They decided to take advantage of the fact an election was imminent in the next 12 months by preparing to lobby the elected representatives in their district.
In today’s politics, interest groups play a large role in the government system. An interest Group is defined as 'an organized body of individuals who try to influence public policy.' This system is designed so that interest groups would be an instrument of public influence on politics to create changes, but would not threaten the government much. These organizations are either made up of people who represent a different organization or people who represent themselves. Interest groups represent the citizens’ interests and views, while expressing their own needs as well. They are the link between people and politics, giving a way for the public to voice their opinions. Members of interest groups use different tactics to basically impose their wants or needs onto the government by lobbying, educating, and campaigning.
Many people argue that the legislative branch is run by few big interest groups because of their massive contributions against very small contributions from individuals. In a democratic society, power must be shared equally among its citizens, but is that the case in the United States? The answer is simply no, and by limiting their overall spending on elections, policymakers will listen and pay more attention to the public interest over the special interest. Also, by revealing the freeloaders’ names, people will have more knowledge of who is representing them and who has tended to benefit those who made contributions to their campaigns. Finally, prohibiting the spending on food, entertainment and gifts to legislative branch employee will also reduce the corruption in the legislative
More groups of people who are often not heard should be given the chance to be heard by the United States government. It should be increased, but not to the extreme. While representatives should continue to represent specific groups, they must also keep in mind the nation as a whole while representing specific groups of
...k for big business, a private individual, or even the public. The goals and strategies are the same for all lobbyist. Foremost, they must be very good at the art of persuasion, the mainstay of their job. They figure out how to sway politicians to vote on legislation in a way that favors the interest they represent. In our American democracy, people that are not elected representatives shape the laws of our country. If we continue down this path, our democracy will also one day be extinct. We need to get back to the roots of democracy and remember what the true meaning is. Power to the People!
Pork-barrel legislation is a term that is used with the phrase "bringing home the bacon." The phrase "bringing home the bacon," in relation to the local projects, highlights how effective pork-barrel legislation is on the congressional committees and leadership positions that authorize the spending for the projects. Legislative bodies obtain and secure the federal funds for the improvement of local projects, such as parks and roads, through the use of influence on these congressional committees. Pork-barrel legislation is deemed unfair and is criticized by many of the observers of the political system because it is not based on the principle of designating the federal funds to the most worthy and need priorities.
The overarching objective of any lobby and advocacy strategy is to influence decision makers in order to advance and improve conditions for your selected target group. Decision-makers can be politicians and policy-makers as well as other crucial decisive stakeholders, such as international companies, but also church leaders or tribal leaders. Both lobby and advocacy increase the scope of influence to improve policies and achieve structural change in key areas such as agriculture, health, education or trade. Common advocacy methods are often used to enforce changes by making demands. Most of the time these methods are primarily used to send out information to get a specific message across or to mobilize people in order to weaken the position