Open Democracy: Ending the Scourge of the Lobby Industry
If the politicians, however, don't have the final say on the big issues, guess what?
One of the biggest challenges for modern democracies is how to limit the influence of lobby industry, which amounts to nothing less than state capture.
The World Bank defines state capture as “the exercise of power by private actors — through control over resources, threat of violence, or other forms of influence — to shape policies or implementation in service of their narrow interests.
Under state capture, policymaking doesn’t work the way most people believe it does, and neither do elections. Under state capture, the rule-making machinery itself is the prize, including the ability to define what constitutes corrupt or illicit behaviour in the first place.
John Menadue writes:
There are about 280 lobbying entities registered in Canberra with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. They lobby on behalf of over 3600 clients and employ close to 900 staff as lobbyists.
On top of these ‘third party’ lobbyists, there are the special interests who conduct their own lobbying, such as the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Pharmacy Guild and the Business Council of Australia.
These lobbyists encompass a range of interests including mining, clubs, hospitals, private health insurance funds, business and hotels that have all successfully challenged government policy and the public interest in many ways.
Just think what the Minerals Council of Australia did to defeat the Mining Super Profits Tax and bring down Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. That same Council led the campaign to defeat the Carbon Tax which remains the most sensible way to cut carbon pollution by taxing ‘externalities’.
There are the activities of Clubs Australia to thwart gambling reform.
It is estimated that over 2000 lobbyists in Canberra have ‘orange passes’ that give them unescorted access to the private areas of Parliament House. It is also easy walking to Parliament House from their many offices in Barton and Kingston such as the Minerals Council of Australia, the Pharmacy Guild, AMA, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the Business Council of Australia to mention just a few. They are also located in easy walking distance to Prime Minister and Cabinet, Treasury, Finance and the National Press Club. A real Lobby Land!
Lobbying is about winning political favours that corrupt markets and prevent open competition. Land rezoning is the most blatant example. Get a favourable re zoning and dramatically increase the value of the property.
LobbyLand. The scourge of powerful special interests and lobbyists.
If the politicians, however, don't have the final say on the big issues, guess what?
No more incentive for lobbyists to spend millions on buying or influencing them.
Bye bye lobby industry.
Hello real democracy and real solutions to real problems ...
Have your say and help make open democracy a reality ...
Elected officials should refer all major political issues, particular those pushed or promoted by the lobbyists, to the people through open democracy and defer making decisions until there is a clear majority one way or the other? (Agree/Disagree)
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About PByT Surveys & Open Democracy
The PByT surveys represent a rolling snapshot of global sentiment from real people whose identity has been verified. The results can be analyzed in a variety of ways to get a better understanding of key issues utilizing Bayesian statistics - a mathematical concept that updates beliefs in light of new data or evidence.
As a result, these surveys have the potential to be the most definitive resources on some of the most critically important issues of modern times and serve as the basis for the idea of "open democracy."
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