.png)
To begin with, lobbying is basically when an individual or corporation attempts to
influence a government through either written or oral communication. Almost
everyone carries out lobbying, and the practice, in essence, isn’t a bad thing.
(Calling on your representative to not pass a bill is lobbying). However, when it
comes to corporations influencing government decisions against the will of the
people, that is when lobbying becomes problematic. Lobbying is used by a wide
variety of major corporations to persuade the government to advance their agenda
and help them boost their profits. One such example is lobbying by the defence
industry. Last year alone, the defence industry spent $64 million in lobbying. Now,
how does this much spending benefit any company? I mean surely it must be
cheaper to adapt to such changes right? Well, the answer to that is no. For an
industry such as defence, the policies that a government makes hugely affect
them. Think about this using the following example, the primary contractors of
companies that manufacture arms and munitions (For example Lockheed Martin)
are governments to ensure that their militaries have an effective arms supply. Now
if a country places sanctions or any other form of an economic embargo on another
company, arms companies are going to be negatively impacted. Hence, it will be in
the best interest of almost every Defense Contractor to lobby the government
into not placing sanctions on the latter country. Lobbying is done for various
reasons by the defence industry:
● Lobbying for government contracts: Government Contracts are major
sources of guaranteed revenue for a business [A government has to pay its
contractors and cannot go bankrupt]
● Lobbying to influence government decisions and policies: Business within the
defence industry often lobby for governments to propose and pass bills that
are favourable to them and ensure that they will get the best profit
Notable Examples of Defense Lobbying:
1. In 2013, Northrup Grumman unleashed campaign contributions and lobbying
power as part of a successful effort to persuade Congress to override a
Pentagon decision to mothball its Global Hawk drone fleet.
2. Another example: In 2011 and 2012, defence contractors flooded campaign
coffers of lawmakers sitting on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters Caucus, who
supported the development of the new fighter jet despite delays, cost
overruns and defects. The primary contractors building the jets gave nearly
twice as much to F-35 Caucus members as they did to other lawmakers.
Now to close off (Yes I kept this editorial short and sweet), why is lobbying
problematic? Well, the defence industry and most other industries as a whole do
not always represent the will of the people. However, they can insert their money
and exert their power to get politicians to do what they want even when people
oppose them [Example would be the expanding of the Trans - National Mountain
pipeline in Western Canada widely opposed by many Canadians and especially
opposed by indigenous Canadians] and also the fact that they can manipulate public
opinion and spread misinformation [Example would be NRA’s campaign in Brazil to
encourage the citizens to vote no to gun control]. Corporate lobbying has been
classified by various political analysts as outright bribery. Money is a major player
in politics and business so it makes sense why both of them generally intertwine
with each other more often than the average public suspect and realistically it is
simply not possible to remove money from politics, it should be regulated to
minimize the harm that it does to democratic institutions.
Comments