EU has done really well on passing big laws such as GDPR in the recent years, while the US can’t even seem to decide whether to fund their own government. Why do you think Europe is doing better than the US? One would think that since EU is more diverse it would be harder to find common ground. And there were examples of that during the Greece debt crisis. But not anymore, it seems.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that Lobbying isn’t that big in Europe and several states have laws actively against the practice. Sure, corrupt politicians still exists, but they are more easily exposed under anti-corruption laws. Unlike in the USA where it’s practically legalized bribery.
Why are there 25k lobbyists in Brussels then?
https://corporateeurope.org/en/lobbyplanet
Wat
The word you are looking for is corruption. It always gets mixed up with lobbying. Lobbying is not inherently bad. It is good practice to ask the people a law applies to, if the law is feasible. It helps to avoid passing laws, that are completely impracticable and destroy a whole sector of economy in the worst case.
I’d agree if there was a level playing field, but there isn’t, those with the most money get the most influence. It is a form of corruption.
It’s known as caviar diplomacy
https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/politico-eu-influence/azerbaijan-crisis-raises-fresh-scrutiny-over-eu-lobbying-battle-2/
No, that’s just corruption, not lobbyism.
Lobbyism leads to corruption is my feeling
Those EU lobbyists have less capability. They cannot finance a campaign for a politician, can they?
The US has #CitizensUnited.
The US also has corporate lobbyists who use fraudulent techniques such as writing thousands of letters from fake people (they got caught doing this on the #netneutrality issue whereby Congress got thousands of letters appearing to be from individual human beings who all opposed network neutrality – LOL). Are EU corporate lobbyists willing to partake in such blatant fraud?
Biggest lobby in the US → #NRA. The NRA owns about ½ the politicians. And since the NRA are right-wing extremists who work with #ALEC (right-wing lobby & bill mill), they push everything in favor of big corps and against human beings. They block progress.
Well, lobbyists don’t fund campaigns, they seek to influence for cash.
There are loads of shady things going on in the EU agriculture sector, the US doesn’t have a monopoly on shady lobbyists.
https://www.politico.eu/article/copa-cogeca-farmering-lobby-europe/
Pharma is by far the biggest spender on lobbying
https://www.statista.com/statistics/257364/top-lobbying-industries-in-the-us/
I don’t know, why?
I never said it wasn’t a thing, just that it’s harder. Open secrets says that there are 12,000 on Washington D.C. alone. I’d guess there are many times more than those on every state, with the largest states having more. It’s a global issue, that’s not an argument.
It is big though.