Higher earning 'elite' political lobbyists overstate their own achievements, study shows
"Elite," high-earning political lobbyists are more likely to overstate their achievements, a new study shows.
"Elite," high-earning political lobbyists are more likely to overstate their achievements, a new study shows.
Social Sciences
Nov 6, 2019
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In an unexpected move, Google, the wily search giant with loads of ambition and enough spare cash to enable it to dabble in technologies that appear to have nothing to do with its core business, has hired ...
With pressure mounting to address the state's recycling crisis, California lawmakers are close to deciding on three far-reaching pieces of plastics legislation, including one that would phase out non-recyclable single-use ...
Environment
Sep 5, 2019
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Greater transparency is needed to understand the influence of lobbyists when delivering crucial renewable energy schemes in the UK, new research has claimed.
Energy & Green Tech
May 29, 2019
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In early 2018, a deputy assistant administrator in the EPA, Clint Woods, reached out to a Massachusetts toxicologist best known for pushing a public health standard suggesting that low levels of toxic chemicals and radiation ...
Environment
Feb 25, 2019
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State legislators are more attentive to wealthy citizens' political opinions compared to poor citizens' opinions when making policy decisions, but stricter regulations on professional lobbyists can promote more equal political ...
Social Sciences
Sep 17, 2014
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A top Senate Democrat says the advertising industry is ignoring consumers' requests not to be tracked online and that it's probably time for federal regulation.
Internet
Apr 24, 2013
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Widespread cost cutting in newsrooms has led to less investigative journalism, more weather and traffic reports and greater opportunities for lobbyists to get their message into the media, a US report has found.
Social Sciences
Mar 19, 2013
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(Phys.org)—Economists at the University of Warwick have calculated the true value of US political lobbyists, proving the old adage 'it is not what you know, but who you know'.
Economics & Business
Dec 12, 2012
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Flying squads of auto dealers descended on Washington, D.C., in late September. Amped up by a rabble-rousing talk by House Speaker John Boehner and clutching copies of a dealers' association pamphlet entitled "A Flawed Fuel ...
Energy & Green Tech
Oct 3, 2011
10
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Lobbying (also lobby) is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or advocacy groups (interest groups). Lobbyists may be among a legislator's constituents, meaning a voter or bloc of voters within his or her electoral district, or not; they may engage in lobbying as a business, or not. Professional lobbyists are people whose business is trying to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest who hires them. Individuals and nonprofit organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part of their normal job (for instance, a CEO meeting with a representative about a project important to his/her company, or an activist meeting with his/her legislator in an unpaid capacity). Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying that has become influential.
The ethics and morality of lobbying are dual-edged. Lobbying is often spoken of with contempt, when the implication is that people with inordinate socioeconomic power are corrupting the law (twisting it away from fairness) in order to serve their own conflict of interest. But another side of lobbying is making sure that others' interests are duly defended against others' corruption, or even simply making sure that minority interests are fairly defended against mere tyranny of the majority. For example, a medical association, or a trade association of health insurance companies, may lobby a legislature in order to counteract the influence of tobacco companies, in which case the lobbying would be viewed by most people as justified (duly defending against others' corruption). The difficulty in drawing objective lines between which lobbyists are "good lobbyists" and which ones are "bad ones" is compounded by the cleverness with which lobbyists or their clients can speciously argue that their own lobbying is of the "good" kind. At heart, the effort to influence legislation is a power struggle. As in other forms of power struggle, such as war or law enforcement, motives range from predation to self-defense to fighting for justice, and the dividing line between predation and justice is subject to rationalization.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA