Lobbying

LOBBYING (lobbying activity) – any activity carried out by lawful means aimed at influencing the public authorities in the law-making process. This definition is included in the Act on lobbying in the law-making process. Institution of l. is connected with the functioning of civil society as a solution to the problems of formal democracy – the authority must, factually and in a concrete way, speak with interest groups or individual citizens interested in legal solutions introduced by the state, and the lobbyist acts as a defender or represents the force with which the legislature must reckon with. In the United States, the rules of l. are defined by law, in Germany its rules of procedure are set by the Bundestag’s statute, similar legal and customary regulations are found in Great Britain. L. in the public administration may be of two kinds: the administration may be subject to pressures imposed on it by persons, interest groups, politicians of political parties, or officials themselves may exert pressure at the stage of project creation, internal and inter-ministerial arrangements. L. promotes political corruption if there are ambiguous regulations in relations among lobbyists, officials or politicians (→ corruption). In the Polish legal system, apart from the statutory definition of lobbying activity (l.a.) the term “professional lobbying” was also introduced that means for-profit l.a. and for the benefit of third parties, in order to take into account the interests of these persons during the law-making process. This activity can be carried out by both the entrepreneur and the natural person who is not an entrepreneur on the basis of a civil-law contract. In order to ensure the transparency of the entities performing the professional l.a., a special register has been created, maintained by the minister responsible for public administration in the form of a database. The register contains the following data: company, registered office and address of an entrepreneur performing professional l.a., or the name and address of a natural person who is not an entrepreneur performing professional l.a.; in the case of entrepreneurs performing professional l.a. – the number in the register of entrepreneurs in the National Court Register, if any, and the tax identification number (NIP). The register is open and the information contained therein is made public in the Public Information Bulletin, excluding the places of residence of natural persons (→ connections between public administration and interest groups) [ J. Itrich-Drabarek], [ K. Mroczka ]

Literature: M. Kalinowski, Lobbing w świetle teorii wyboru publicznego [Lobbying in the light of the public choice theory], Łódź 2016 ■ B.G. Peters, Administracja publiczna w systemie politycznym [Public administration in the political system], Warszawa 1999 ■ J. Świeca, B. Piwowar, Lobbing [Lobbying], Warszawa 2010.