What is political lobbying and how does it work?
Why do people say in the US political lobbying is a problem?
Observing from another political system which has its own issues with lobbying, its easy to see the flaws in the US system, less so my own.
Lobbying is the process where a special interest group [say gun manufacturers, cheese makers, Friends of the Endangered Speckled Warbler] try to influence government to make positive decisions towards then [e.g. loosen gun ownership laws, tighten cheese imports, set up a Nature Preserve].
Since government is the process of trying to reconcile competing interests without resort to bloodshed taking any of those actions will have consequences or impacts on other people like importers of dairy products, or someone who wants to drill for oil in the Warbler’s habitat. Their focus should be on which choice is best for the people they serve and can keep them / boot them from office through elections.
Lobbying becomes an issue where they can use their group’s money to influence election outcomes, and then the laws that are made. Industry groups [which are strictly not lobbyists] can donate big-time towards the election of a preferred candidate, or show support for a particular candidate. The largest groups / companies / marginal interests such as tech billionaires / reclusive far-rightwingers have enough money to seriously influence the outcome of campaigns. So Answer 1 is that a shambolic and barely fit for purpose electoral system like in the US is very sensitive to the effect of money being donated to candidates, way out of proportion with the influence of voter opinion to determine the result.
Within government, when you are trying to make decisions the role of lobbyists is to influence you towards their own position. This can mean fully informing you that cheese imports yield $XXX in import duties, but rob Americans of $XXXX in cheese-related jobs. When you say, ‘yes, but much American cheese tastes like shit’, then their job is to counter your arguments, and bring you towards the view that the best thing is to vote Yes rather than No. Okay so far, the cheese importers will be dancing the same dance as well.
Lobbying becomes dangerous when the appeal is not to quantifiable or tangible costs and benefits of a decision and how that translates to peoples’ lives, but when a group uses it to maintain a position that is essentially perpetuating a lie. Examples could be the gun lobby, cancer denial by tobacco companies, climate denial by energy companies.
This sort of lobbying requires convincing potential voters that these myths are true and that if you adopt an evidence-based, or even simply cost-benefit view then you are at risk of being voted out. So Answer 2 is that lobbying is bad where those on top or who have power [businesses / creepy zillionaires] have the resources and the inclination to want to stay there regardless of their merits, and are willing to distort reality to do it.
Sorry, long-winded answer but its a fascinating topic.
[Moderating]
“What is lobbying” is a question that has room for factual answers. “How does it work” is iffy. “Why is it a problem” is a firmly political question.
Moving to IMHO.
Every US citizen is entitled to speak to the government about their needs, concerns, and preferences. Lobbyists are paid representatives of people who can speak to the government just as people have lawyers represent them in court. The system is viewed in low regard outside of the people who can afford lobbyists, but the problems exist because by due process of law government officials are allowed to take bribes from lobbyists including campaign services. This is in addition to the bribes given to elected officials in the form of campaign contributions.
How is lobbying different than bribery?
In the same way that a non disclosure agreement in exchange for a payment is different from blackmail & extortion.
There are lawyers involved (I’m mostly joking)
The classical answer is the standard: “you can’t buy my vote, but you can rent my attention.”
Recently the US Supreme Court required that a bribe be defined as goods or services exchanged for a specific government duty. Just because corporate bigwig keeps giving their friend a politician expensive gifts, until the bigwig asks for a specific government action (vote, regulation, etc), the gifts are fine. Even if the politician concludes on his/her own that a government action that favors Ms. bigwig’s corporation is the correct thing to do. That is just being a government official and apparent bias is just that, apparent, and not a bribe. Yeah, it is corrupt.
But bribery is just giving money to a person there may be no blackmail or extortion.
So how is bribery different than lobbying.
And what does the government do with that money?
There’s a definitely a grey area where bribery and lobbying/campaign support can overlap. IANAL but my understanding is that bribery requires a specific “quid pro quo”, where the briber is giving a set amount of cash in exchange for a specific result.
The government doesn’t get the money in either case. If it’s lobbying, the money goes to a candidate’s campaign expenses. If it’s bribery, it goes straight into the politician’s pocket.
In in case of lobbying does that money go to the political party or person? Say for example some one likes Trump and gives million dollars does that go to Trump or the Republican Party?
And what do they do with the money?
There are election laws in place regarding donations that are made to political campaigns. The money does not go to the individual or the government, it normally goes to the candidate’s campaign fund which they will use to run for office. There are very specific laws on what a political campaign can spend money on. And politicians can be very astute in how they find ways to stay within the boundaries of the law.
That’s not lobbying. That’s just campaign contributions. Lobbying is convincing government officials to act in your interests. To bribe them you tell them that they’ll receive campaign contributions and political organizations will campaign for them, give their friends and relatives jobs, and give them a job after they leave government.
So you can only give them money well they are running for office by giving money to candidate’s campaign fund? You can’t give money to them after the election?
Is it both just giving money or does the money have to go to candidate’s campaign fund you can’t give money to party or person.
So say Steve is running for office you cannot give money to him or his party it has to go to the candidate’s campaign fund.
My sister is a lobbyist for a climate change organization. Her job is to try to convince congressmen to vote for climate change legislation.
First let me note that in theory lobbying doesn’t necessarily involve money at all. In practice, the relationship between lobbying and campaign finance is complex, to put it mildly.
For your specific example, someone who really likes Trump can donate to the Trump campaign directly. There is however a limit of around $3000 per election. This Trump supporter can also donate to the Republican party, also subject to a limit. I’m not sure what the limit is, but I think it’s higher than the candidate limit.
There is a third option, which is to donate to a political action committee, where the big dough is. Donations to PACs are unlimited.
Obviously, any of these entities are supposed to use the money to pay for political campaigns - buying ads, driving from place to place, paying for staffers, etc.
Using the money for other expenses is illegal, as George Santos is currently learning.
So I guess the only difference is bribery than lobbying. Is bribery they can do what they want with that money like buy car, buy house, go on vacation or put that money in their bank account, but lobbying is money with restrictions that can only be use for getting votes on the upcoming election or the next election. Like political campaigns - buying ads, driving from place to place, paying for staffers not money to buy car, buy house or go on vacation or put money in their bank account.
Lobbying doesn’t have to involve money at all. As I said, my sister is a lobbyist. Her job is to convince congresspeople of the importance of climate change legislation. She does this by actually meeting and talking with them.
You might even call it peacably assembling to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
If you bribe a politician, you give money (or anything of value) and in return you receive something of value that only an official can provide, by virtue of his office. Both elements (giving and receiving) are necessary because bribery is a kind of transaction. If the transaction is not complete, it isn’t bribery, only attempted bribery.
If you lobby a politician, you do not have to give anything of value or receive anything of value. To lobby is to attempt to influence a politician to take a given action. Even if you aren’t successful it is still lobbying. Bribery is only one (illegal) way to lobby, out of many.
If you send weekly letters to your representative to complain about your tax rate, and receive no response, then you have lobbied the politician (unsuccessfully, I might add). Yet you neither gave him anything of value nor received anything of value. There is no transaction. It is not the same as a bribe.
Let’s say you donate a modest sum of money to the politician’s campaign for re-election. You hope he will become ingratiated to you and lower your tax rate. You are attempting to bribe the politician, but your attempt is very poor and chances are high the politician will not feel obligated to lower your taxes. Most people who donate modest sums do so to express approval with a politician, and unless you meet with him he will probably just take the money and do nothing different.
So you gather a petition and schedule an appointment. After much waiting you complain about your taxes to his face. He shakes your hand, says he’ll do what he can, and nothing else happens. This is because donating to a politician and even meeting with a politician is not the same as bribery. Even if you give the politician something of value, he is under no obligation to use his office to give you something of value in return.
Even if he does end up voting to lower taxes after meeting with you, or after you donate a large sum of money, that might be because he thinks you are right rather than because he feels obligated to return the favor. There is enough plausible deniability that he almost certainly won’t be charged with bribery. After all it is the job of a political representative to represent the interests of his polity. Unless he is caught on tape saying “I’ll do it if you donate another million” or some other incriminating statement, it is very difficult to prove bribery. So in some cases lobbying will create the appearance of a conflict of interest, and one may reasonably suspect donations are being treated as bribes, but proving it is very difficult.
~Max