Describe Impact of Lobby Groups in US Financial System (Term Paper Sample)

Running Head: LOBBY GROUPS IN US POLITICAL SYSTEM
Impact of Lobby Groups in US Financial System
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Introduction
Interest groups are one of the most important transmission channel through which public policies, laws, regulatory policies and other laws are influenced in US. Interest groups is a platform for companies, industries, and groups to come together to explicitly state their ideas, views and the kind and nature of policy changes that will be advantageous for them. Importantly, big corporations are known to have some of the powerful interest groups in US. Inevitably, the policy change demanded by corporations are ones that will enhance their business gains. Therefore, the two methods adopted by these interest groups to achieve their objectives are known as inside game and outside game. Strategy adopted under inside game technique is to try to persuade members of congress or any government official through direct or indirect persuasion. Essentially, it is this strategy that is famously and widely known as lobbying. In fact, lobbying is a legal activity in the United States where, most often than not, a lawyer or a legal advisor is provided huge compensation to incentivize him/her to be driven to influence government at every level. Such members of the lobbying community, over a period of time, become members of social circles of politicians and other government officials and establish a strong personal connection with them. Understandably, Washington has the largest concentration of lobbyists in US due to it being the nation’s capital. The Willard Hotel is the place that most of the lobbyists operate from in Washington. Availability of excess amounts of money is a very important considerations because maintaining a lifestyle that matches up to the congress members and other government officials is the key to influence them. However, other factors are also important for lobbyist’s success. Essentially, the impact of lobbyists is at three levels in the government and institutions that govern the political system (Smith, 1995).
Impact of Lobby Groups
The lobbyists try to influence all the three levels of branches that make up the federal bureaucracy in US. The lobbying at the legislative level is targeted to willingly influence congress members and their ideas, views and opinions in order to influence them to initiate the desired legislation. Hence, to achieve their end, the lobbyists will try to convince them directly through a number of formal and informal meeting and discussions. However, to regulate the impact that lobbyists can have on members of congress, the Senate house publishes a plethora of ethics guidelines that determines the permissible level of interaction and association with congress (Smith, 1995). For instance, the first three months of the year 2015 witnessed total spending to the tune of 65 million dollars to influence federal policy. Hence, influencing the legislative branch involves high stakes and is a big business in itself (Wilie, 2015).
The lobbying activity of most interest groups at the executive branch is carefully scrutinized by the media houses. Most of the lobbyists have their access and reach to lower levels of the executive branch which includes institutions that pass regulatory laws. These regulatory laws changes are intended to benefit and ease the expansion of business mostly at the expense of other stakeholders, which might include general public. Hence, the widely prevailing belief is that lobbying has resulted in agency capture. In other words, the regulatory institutions have become subservient to industry demands that was to be regulated by them. For instance, the lobbying by the tobacco firms have been a matter of intense discussion. A number of laws have been passed that have made it easier for Tobacco firms to sell products which have adverse health impacts on society (Smith, 1995).
Most of the interest groups, if needed, also resort to influence courts to suit their needs. One common tactics is filing for friends of the court briefs, where the groups will present an argument for issue that suits their needs. Fi...