POSC150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 32: Honeywell, Condom, Act Up
Document Summary
Influence government decisions through direct interaction with policy matters: usually what you hear about, used to waiting outside parliaments in lobby. Most interest groups hire professional lobbyists: shit ton of money spent on lobbying, about 12,000 people are lobbyists. Also push ideas through contributions to political campaigns via political action. Committees (pacs: regulated through the government, biggest ones: honeywell international, at&t, lockheed martin. How to be a lobbyist: main goal. Provide policy-makers with factual information: focus on congressional committees. Get them to allocate resources to the people they"re representing: built long-term relationships based on trust. If more straight forward then become the go-to person. Ie congressional committees, bureaucrats, and lobbyists getting super cozy and only doing stuff that will benefit them. Committees sometimes just follow lobbyists blindly: the revolving doors. Former politicians or staffers will leave and then become lobbyists. Why matter: the big businesses are the ones that can afford the most lobbyists.
