The Ethical Lobbyist

the long version

The public's view of lobbying is that it is synonymous with corruption. Corruption is rare despite the popular perception, but there is plenty of evidence that the lobbying profession has a serious problem with inaccurate representation of member or client interests, which Holyoke argues is fundamentally an ethics problem. Holyoke's research has shown that lobbyists go against their clients' or members' interests about 50% of the time in order to curry favor with lawmakers. Why is this unethical and how can it be prevented? The First Amendment protects political participation and representation--citizens freely assembled (into interest groups) may employ professional petitioners (lobbyists) to faithfully press their causes to lawmakers, but this also shows why compromising member interests is unethical. Holyoke makes the analogy that the lobbyist-client relationship should be more like the attorney-client relationship of ironclad representation. He says that the current laws regulating lobbying are inadequate when it comes to ensuring ethical behavior. Finally, he presents a set of principles and a specific proposal for reform based on these principles.