Lobbying in the sunshine—hiding behind transparency?

Abstract

Lobbying in Israel was unregulated for 60 years. Scholars have decried the fact that high value is attached to the written decree, but implementation does not necessarily follow: quite a few laws have remained at symbolic level in Israel. There were two unsuccessful bills submitted to legislate lobbying regulation: first by Knesset Member (MK) Merom in 1993 and the second one by MK Naot in 2001. The bill submitted by MKs Yechimovich and Sa'ar in 2007 resulted in passing the Israeli lobbying regulations in 2008, but the Lobbyist Law displayed unexpected characteristics, and there was a 500% growth in lobbyist numbers. In 2012, a scandal shook the Israeli lobbying world as a crew from the Israeli Channel 2's investigative show Uvda (‘Fact’) infiltrated the training program of the Gilad Government Relations & Lobbying firm. Following the Channel 2 exposé, the Speaker of the Knesset MK Rivlin instructed Knesset employees to immediately forbid the entrance of all lobbyists to areas heavily used by MKs. These steps, taken almost 4 years after that the Knesset had passed a weak Lobbyist Law, scoring 28 points according to the Center of Public Integrity score, did not create more transparency but only set certain restrictions on the lobbyists' movements in the Knesset building. In 2013, MK Koll submitted a bill to further regulate the lobbying followed by another bill by MKs Yechimovich and Tsur in 2014. However, these bills were thrashed as the Knesset was dispersed in December 2014. This paper would analyze the bills from 1993, 2001, 2007, 2013, and 2014 by measuring their strength according to the Center of Public Integrity Index in order to explore the path that resulted in passing the Lobbyist Law in 2008 and in the following developments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How did the disclosure of lobbying targeting Quebec's hospitals become mandatory and with what effect?

“…On the other hand, the case study findings seem to cohere with studies showing that politicians tend to symbolically support change when it is not too constraining for them (Courty & Milet, 2018; Crepaz, 2021; Lowery & Gray, 1997; Veksler, 2016). The status quo actors never spoke out openly against greater transparency for lobbying activities targeting mega‐hospitals.…”

“…Second, other theories posit that politicians’ attitudes and behaviour towards lobbying regulation result from strategic calculations. Anglo‐Saxon and French studies on the regulation of lobbying suggest that politicians will support a change to the extent that it allows them to make a symbolic gain without harming their interests (Courty & Milet, 2018; Crepaz, 2021; Lowery & Gray, 1997; Veksler, 2016). This theoretical perspective helps us understand why politicians have approved changes that are not constraining for them and for the lobbyists with whom they work.…”

Transparency! Transparency? Comparing the new lobbying legislation in Ireland and the UK

“…This is the first study to comparatively examine the new lobbying regulations in Ireland and the UK. Our aim was to use the CPI's Hired Guns index, which has been employed in other jurisdictions by the CPI, Chari et al, (2010), Crepaz and Chari (2014), Sgueo (2015) and Veksler (2016) to measure the strength of the regulations in both countries. Taking Chari et al's, (2010) threefold classification of regulatory systems, the CPI scores assigned to the Irish and UK legislation makes them both medium regulatory environments.…”

“…However, the CPI's Hired Guns method has been utilised in analysing and comparing lobbying regulations, in terms of transparency and accountability, in the US (Thomas et al, 2008) and in various national and subnational jurisdictions across the world (Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Taiwan, and the European Union etc. ), thus providing us with a wide range of comparators (Chari et al, 2010;Crepaz and Chari, 2014;Sgueo, 2015;Veksler, 2016). The CPI is a Washington, DC, based nonpartisan, non-profit investigative news organisation, with a focus on transparency, amongst other things.…”