KEY DETERMINANTS OF LOBBYING ENVIRONMENT

Lobbying is different everywhere. Each country has a distinct interest group system. That is not to say that lobbying techniques and tactics are not similar in most locations, for they are. In every interest group community to greater or lesser extents and to greater or lesser degrees of effectiveness lobbyists talk directly to policy-makers, join coalitions, stimulate grassroots efforts, undertake policy research and frame policy issues, use the media to advance issues, and so on. These activities, if not entirely universal, are quite common. What is exceptional about every lobbying environment is the political, cultural and institutional framework within which those ubiquitous activities occur.

Key Determinants

  1. Nature of the Political System( governmental institutions, legislature, executive, judiciary, public services, political parties, interest groups, feedback process)
  2. Characteristics of Political System (degree of comprehensiveness, interdependence and boundary, extent to which political leaders integrate and keep themselves separate from society)
  3. Functions of the System (input and output functions, political socialisation, recruitment, interest articulation and interest aggregation and interest communication which also includes rule making, rule application and rule adjudication.)
  4. Institutional mechanism (likelihood of a policy proposal succeeding affects how interest groups position themselves)
  5. Institutional design and policy making process (agenda setting, policy formulation, policy legitimation, policy implementation, policy evaluation, policy maintenance, succession or termination)
  6. Interest  representation system (whether and to which extent decisions taken in the form of output have helped in solving problems and what support the decisions have got from the people and also what still remains to be done to meet such demands which have remained un-met or are likely to be put on the system).
  7. Culture ( difference and country-specific patterns of behavior)
  8. Political traditions
  9. Normative perspectives on the role of private actors  
  10. Range of entry points by which lobbyists can access the policy-making process
  11. Existence or absence of lobbying regulations,
  12. Funding of political parties and electoral campaigns,
  13. Autonomy and expertise of bureaucracies (bureaucratic power, ability to accomplish objectives, expertise, collection and control of information and giving advice, defining or redefining issues through the interpretation of relevant information, restricting or enhancing the flow of information, using ambiguous information to support policy proposals in ways that laypersons cannot easily understand , political and public support, organizational vitality, leadership).
  14. Direct election of policy makers
  15. Term limits on elected office-holders
  16. Openness of government towards civil society
  17. Nature of state-civil society relationships
  18. Level of public participation and engagement
  19. Expertise of outside groups to formulate policy
  20. Capacity of the judicial system to challenge official decisions .
  21. Media and Public Opinion (Integrated versus fragmented, availability of media outlets that can reach an important part of a political constituency for outside strategies that target public opinion.
  22. Transparency (details about activities, work relationships and contributions, information about hearings, meetings, grant applications, administrative orders, proposed rules and regulations and other policy documents detailing lobbying activities, which allows following a policy process from the very beginning and through a wealth of documents, by topic or agency)

 

 

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