Lobbyist
Lobbyists is a term given to a group of people who are employed to convince or persuade the legislatures to vote in favor of a bill or law that will favor the majority of citizens or the employers of the lobbyists. These groups aim at ensuring that legislatures adhere to the matters that pertains to their interests and made to be law, ensuring that the law is well represented and governed. According to Texas Politics, lobbying can be considered one of the oldest, and best-known, interest group tactics (p. 224) that plays an important if not controversial role in American Politics.
Lobbying is a multibillion-dollar industry and according to riseuptimes.org, lobbying spending per year in the past four years have been over $3 billion and as of 04/2014, $0.81 billion. “Provided is a summary of political giving dating back to the past four years and as of 04/2014 election cycle: 2010 $3,548,118,489 $3.55 Billion
2011 $3,326,967,436 $3.33 Billion
2012 $3,307,187,543 $3.31 Billion
2013 $3,231,891,794 $3.23 Billion
2014 $811,885,919 $0.81 Billion” (2)
Lobbyists form groups with the aim of imposing sanctions on the government or in persuading legislatures to vote on certain bills that reflects their interest. According to riseuptimes.org, there have been more than 12,000 lobbyists registered since 1998 to 2013 and more than 9,000 lobbyists registered as of 04/2014 at the federal level. (2) The most successful lobbyists are retired state legislators, legislative aides, and gubernatorial aides (Texas Politics) as well as human rights activists who aims at monitoring or correcting the ways in which government conducts and runs business.
Even though lobbying is a multibillion-dollar industry with thousand lobbyists, there are several important advantages and disadvantages to lobbying. Lobbyist major role is in the monitoring the way the country is being run (i.e. either by keeping watch or convincing the government and legislators to deal...