Lobbying Is Corruption

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• Hacker News
• I'm surprised by all the lobbying-apologists in the comments!
  by pavinjoseph
• 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.

  by t43562
• Lobbying purely via transparent talks is ok. Lobbying that has any kind of quid pro quo that pays money or some alternative arrangement now or in future in exchange for the representatives backing a position is corruption.

  Transparent talks is the key part. Without transparent talk how do you know if your representative is doing corruption behind your back? Representatives are elected in democracy to represent the interests of people of their constituency. Technically, since now technology has grown enough for each person to represent themselves, we really don't need representatives anymore in order to do democracy. We would still need some people to form government, which is different from representative in legislature.

  by rubberstamp
• 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.
  by pockybum522
• 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
  by oytis
• Citizens United is probably one of the greatest national blunders I've been alive to witness. I have a sense that if we are indeed watching the beginning of the decline of the American empire, it will be pointed to as a precipitating factor in future textbooks (will those even be a thing anymore?).

  Lobbying is indeed corruption with a suit on.

  by Waterluvian
• 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.

  by Isamu
• 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.

  by u1hcw9nx