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The term 'lobbying' derives from the particular location in which the activity supposedly takes place, the parliamentary or legislative lobby. In practice, most lobbying takes place elsewhere: in government offices, in restaurants or online. This book presents the arguments in favour of and against lobbying. It deals with the various types of lobbyists prevalent in Britain: insider groups, outsider groups, business lobbyists, and commercial lobbyists. The renewable energy industry and the alcohol industry are examples of associations engaging in business lobbying. The book examines how lobbying is carried out, how lobbyists frame or define a policy issue and challenge existing framings, the initative taken by governments to consult stakeholders, the role of social media in revolutionising lobbying, and the forming of advocacy coalitions. It considers three case studies of lobbying in action: the campaign to reduce sugar consumption, issues relating to fixed odds betting terminals, and the future of the Green Belt. The case for and against the regulation of lobbying is discussed next. The book looks at the UK system of regulating lobbying and the regulation prevalent in the European Union. It also examines the issue of whether the democratic process gets unduly distorted by lobbying. Electoral politics can still trump pressure politics.
Cooperation and trust were increasingly scarce commodities in the inner councils of the EU. This book explores why the boldest initiative in the sixty-year quest to achieve a borderless Europe has exploded in the face of the EU. A close examination of each stage of the EU financial emergency that offers evidence that the European values that are supposed to provide solidarity within the twenty eight-member EU in good times and bad are flimsy and thinly distributed. The book aims to show that it is possible to view the difficulties of the EU as rooted in much longer-term decision-making. It begins with an exploration of the long-term preparations that were made to create a single currency encompassing a large part of the European Union. The book then examines the different ways in which the European Union seized the initiative from the European nation-state, from the formation of the Coal and Steel Community to the Maastricht Treaty. It focuses on the role of France and Germany in the EU. Difficulties that have arisen for the EU as it has tried to foster a new European consciousness are discussed next. The increasingly strained relationship between the EU and the democratic process is also examined. The book discusses the evolution of the crisis in the eurozone and the shortcomings which have impeded the EU from bringing it under control. It ends with a portrait of a European Union in 2013 wracked by mutual suspicions.
Political systems are shaped by the societies in which they function. For this reason, it is helpful to know something about the historical, geographical, social and economic settings against which they operate. It is also helpful to understand something of the values and ideas which have mattered and continue to matter to those who inhabit any individual country. This book examines the background factors that help to shape the way in which political life and processes operate in Britain and America. In particular, it examines the similarities and differences in the political culture of the countries. Constitutions describe the fundamental rules according to which states are governed, be they embodied in the law, customs or conventions. Liberties and rights are of especial concern in liberal democracies, which claim to provide a broad range of them. The book examines the protection of liberties in both countries, in particular the right of freedom of expression. In advanced Western democracies, the media perform a major role. The book deals with the impact on political life of the two major mass media: the press and television. Elections are the main mechanism for expressing the public's collective desires about who should be in government and what the government should do. The book examines a number of issues about the functioning of elections in two democracies, looking at the electoral system, and the way in which voters behave and the influence upon their voting.
. Therefore, their right to official party representation had to be safeguarded, in the same way that the Christian parties established in Europe after World War II took part in the democratic process of their countries without hindrance. Brotherhood members had gone through many ideological changes over the years, in some cases after spending time in jail, and the movement’s approach had become more democratic. Ibrahim was being pragmatic here: once the movement’s activities were guided into legitimate channels, its spokesmen would be forced to focus on worldly affairs and
must concern itself not only with the quantity of electoral participation but also its quality. Quality can be understood here in two senses: both the integrity of the electoral process – how ‘free and fair’ elections are – and the meaningfulness of vote expression. In connection with the second understanding, it is also worth considering the impact of this institution on the legitimacy of the democratic process as a whole. These are the aims of this chapter. The first understanding of electoral ‘quality’ is the extent to which elections held under a compulsory
chapter we will explore structural bias and structural conflict. In routine structured 1-D power, such as the traffic police example or the democratic process, social subjects exercise agency within the parameters of social structures. Democratic conflicts take place within the structures of the democratic system. However, those structures came into being as the consequence of conflict over feudal/monarchical/colonial/patriarchal social structures. In 2-D conflict the social subject exercises agency by engaging in conflict over social structures. As we are about to
Turkey’s relations with Europe and the EU have covered a multitude of issues, in particular being heavily involved with economic, political, cultural, ethnic, social, religious, secular and excessive national issues, the democratic process and military interventions in that process, human rights, minority rights, immigration and other aspects. Turkish association with Europe was meant to be the epitome of the country’s integration in the Western civilization; membership in the relevant economic and military bodies (NATO, the EU), the chief
MANY different terms are used to describe the exercise of influence on political decision-makers. The variety and range of language reflects the controversy that surrounds the activity. Is the act of lobbying, the attempt to exercise such influence, a perversion of the democratic process that promotes the interests of the rich and powerful at the expense of the less well-off and the public interest? Or is it simply an application of the principle of freedom of association that improves the democratic progress by enhancing the range and quality of information
legitimate part of the democratic process within all liberal democratic systems’ (Chari, Hogan and Murphy, 2010 : 1). Concerns about lobbying cover both the process and the outcome. Does it involve dubious practices and/ or the illegitimate use of influence? There is concern that it can involve ‘a selective approach to the truth, media manipulation, the undermining of opponents and other dubious practices’ (Cave and Rowell, 2015 : x). It is not just business interests that are involved in such activities. In 2016 Friends of the Earth was forced to withdraw material
, these setbacks have had to acknowledge the need to restore the democratic process. Yet in a wider sense we need to be wary of arguments that predict an ever-onward march of democratization: in reforming or establishing new institutions to meet the challenge of change, South Asian political elites have proved quite adept at producing outcomes that can be profoundly undemocratic. In the light of this, what are the major constraints on democratization in the future? As developments in Afghanistan and Kashmir have illustrated, the problem of political consolidation