Lobbyists Are an Essential Feature of the Democratic Process - Essay Example

Student's Name: Institutional Affiliation: Instructor's Name: Date: Lobbyists are an essential feature of the democratic process. Lobbyists in the current society play an essential role in enhancing democracy. The practice of lobbying receives negative responses that they abandon the truth of how the community policy developsgt in a democratic state. The misconception received by the lobbyists in the society currently is due to the opaque manner in which the leaders of the lobbyist groups operate in that they attract attention in useless issue instead of when it has positive outcomes. For instance, in India and Australia, the response of the lobbyists is somehow right because of the bad record of the misuse of authority by the influential people in the society. Some influential people in various parts of the world have used the name of lobbyists to gain political power. However, some lobbying groups have done much to ensure democratic systems of governance globally. It is essential to know that the government of the day, parliamentarians, and the media cannot function independently without involving the citizens in their activities. It is also essential to understand that all these three bodies are not custodians of what people need or how the state thinks. Policies are made through the combinations of knowledge from the citizens groups such as none-governmental organizations, pressure groups, industry chambers, and interest societies. All these groups in the society employ a lobbyist on their own. History indicates that international lobbying is very old and was first applied in England in the year 1215 when King John gave people a chance to sue him on all kinds of infringement of human constitutional rights. This was later own interpreted by the U.S. as the right to be heard. The lobbyists for instance play a significant role in enhancing democracy all over the world. This is because the lobby groups have formed international organizations that act as checks and balances to the ruling governments. The lobby groups are all interconnected worldwide and hence they support each other whenever an issue of interests arise in one part of the continent. The lobbyists for instance foster their voices with the help of the media groups. The reason of using media to air their grievances is because the modern societies have grown in size, and they have become complex like never before, hence, the field of public communication has been subjugated by media: television, radio and the social media such as twitter and facebook. Lobbyists enhance democracy by informing and educating the citizens. Most of the people are not politically active in the society. They lack information about their rights and how the government of the day violate their rights. To formulate wise decisions about the community policy, citizens require precise, appropriate, and impartial information. This can only be done to the people by the pressure groups in the society in that the state might not be willing to feed the people they rule with the right information. This is, therefore, a clear indication that lobbyists enhance democracy in a society in that they feed the citizens with the right information at the right time. However, another lobbyist's role may be to promote, even without sham of impartiality. The lobby groups also have a role of preventing the corrupt political groups from assuming power. This role is very essential particularly at some stage in general election campaigns, when some few electorates only have the chance to scrutinize the candidates. Some candidates might be corrupt persons who want to take advantage of the citizens' unawareness. The lobby groups, therefore, have a role of protecting those candidates with bad records from entering into power. The other big function of the lobbyists in enhancing democracy is to act as a supervisory body over state and other strong organizations in the public. The government might use its powers to abuse the rights of the citizens especially the minority groups. The pressure groups, therefore, by enjoying its high standards of independence and impartiality, the lobbyists can depict the reality at the back of the deeds of the state and also hold civic officials responsible for their activities. Most of the civil servants all over the world have been known to use the public properties according to their own wish to benefit themselves. It is the role of the lobbyists to protect such civil servants from misusing the public property and hence enhancing democracy. The lobbyist may also carry a vigorous role in civic debates by holding meetings. They can also air public grievances in forums to articulate their thoughts through printed letters and postings to the government. They represent the public hence; they can raise the complaints to the government from the grassroots levels. The entire public cannot be able to raise their issues independently regarding their democracy thus they use the pressure groups to meet their grievances. They also choose the most important grievances to be raised to the government on behalf of the public. This makes sure that the government reacts to the claims especially those touching the democracy of the people. All the people in the society should not be required to participate in the political practices, however, exclusive of citizen's actions, democracy will deteriorate. The citizens have a freedom to correlate freely and even to arrange themselves in groups as they wish very important to democracy. Pressure groups are some of the groups formed by the people in the society and hence are fundamental to democracy. The lobbyists that include political parties have a right to employ, propose, and campaign to vote for civic officials. They propose the public policies for the state in case they are the majority in the parliament of the ruling government; order for new policies or even criticize the government policies in case they are a minority; they rally support for ordinary policies together with other concern groups; they teach the community about the public matters and offer arrangement to the community’s political system. The lobbyists are, therefore, plays an essential role in propelling the social, political and economic activities of the country. Research done by European Public Affairs Consultancies Association (EPACA) indicates that lobbing has two aspects; any society without tyrannical resolution makers should use a group method to make essential decisions on issues of politics. However, in the past, the lobbyists had difficult times presenting their needs in that they were greatly influenced by their individual needs rather than the need of those represented. Self regulation of all the interest groups in Britain was recorded to meet the interest representation. Research done in 1960s questioned the influence of interest groups in United States, arguing that they were less vital as organizations than had earlier been supposed; they were struggling to add their membership and to maintain their income instead of controlling bad political behaviours. Some researchers argued that the lobbyists in Australia became influential by providing corrupt politicians with essential information rather than by threatening them of the lost votes due to their bad leadership. Some lobbyists for instance lack financial support and hence they befriend with some legislators to get funding. Due to the funding they receive, they protect the interests of such legislators and politicians at the expense of doing their own work of checking the government. The dynamics of the lobbyists can be complex. The lobbyist groups with a large number of followers will always draw automatic attention and hearing from the government. The lobbyists are, therefore, can influence democracy in many ways. History for instance indicates that the government in power will always fear the lobbyist groups because of their influence in the grassroots level. Anything that may influence the voting pattern in the nation is highly feared by a government in power because they need support in the future as well as smooth running of the government. However, even the small, well organized lobby groups that have well defined vision and mission have been found to perform well regardless of their group size. The emergence of none governmental organizations NGOs in the last two decades has assisted the lobbyists internationally to serve the needs of the citizens, community, or even the cause, that may be defined worldwide. The NGOs is the international organization has always tried to confront the work of undemocratic governments, by enlightening and teaching the citizens to face the chief public matters and monitoring the behaviour of private and government enterprises. It has helped the developing countries to rich the required levels of democracies especially during general elections by giving reports on observations to ensure free and fare elections. The NGOs supports the pressure groups and works with them to ensure that the requirements of the people are met. NGOs have also provided proficiency and knowledgeable personnel on the grassroots to monitor the implementation of state funded activities to ensure transparency. It may possibly be based on sponsor ideals, and they may look for the advancement of a meticulous cause in the public interest. The NGOs are none partisan, and it operates under minimal political control and hence cannot be influenced by political interests. Because of its independence, it boots democracy in that it will always criticize government and the private sectors without fear or favour. The lobbyists are also essential features of the democratic process in that they ensure that the external defence matters and all kinds of threats to national security are determined by the officials elected by the citizens. They make sure that the military serves the nation rather than leading it. By doing this, the lobbyists boost the democracy of the nation at large in that it make the military leaders to just advice the elected persons on logistical issues for them to determine the way forward on behalf of the electorate. The people who are voted are the only ones who have the final responsibility and authority to decide the fate of the country. The lobbyists, therefore, carries this important democratic activity. Lobbyists in Australia has helped the public to air their grievances in various sectors of economy especially agricultural sectors, the intellectual property rights, the insurance activities, licences aviation and many other sectors of economy and social life. The lobby groups in Australia have also raised the voices of farmers, the workers, as well as boosting the changes in laws and individual taxation. This is, therefore, a clear indication that lobbyists enhance democracy by checking the roles of the government to ensure that the common citizens get the required services. The lobby groups also have ability to influence the executive branch of government in Australia. The interest groups influence how the sitting president makes decisions in that it is a great force in the society. Failing to take caution of the grievances raised by the lobbyists may result in demonstrations that may hinder the smooth running of the government. The lobbyist, therefore gives the government the needed pressure to serve the people. The lobbyists have been known to influence the bureaucracy of a nation. They have also received judicial support in some countries thus making them to be a strong force to the government in that they have been given mandate to check the government by the courts. The entire political system of a country can also influence the powers of the pressure groups thus can determine how they perform. The lobbyists throughout the world have increased their pressure in the last two decades due to the NGOs support. However, the influence of lobbyists depends with the tactics they use, their level of legitimacy, transparency, and political skills. Research indicates that unions and businesses make up the huge majority of lobbying groups in the world. In conclusion, lobbyists are essential features of democracy in the world. It has improved policy making globally especially in developed countries like United States. It has a role of empowering the people by educating them about their rights. It provides checks and balances for both the private and public sectors thus enhancing democracy. Lobbyists work with the media to teach the people about their rights. They give the government the pressure needed for enforcement of some specific laws in various sectors of the economy such as agriculture. However, research indicates that some pressure groups are influenced by some political organizations and hence some have failed to perform the intended roles. The main challenge faced by lobbyists globally is financial constraints. Of late, the NGOs plays an essential role in supporting the lobbyists that result in democracy in that they help in surveillance of the government by exposing information that could be kept secret. References Adams, B. E. (2007). Citizen lobbyists local efforts to influence public policy. Philadelphia, Temple University Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=198673. Baggott, R. (1995). 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