Autor: Aleksandar STEVANOVIĆ
Publicat în: Journal Of Eastern European Criminal Law no. 1/2019
Revistă disponibilă: aici.
Abstract: The present paper presents the key issues of lobbying with pointing on similarities and dissimilarities in comparison to corruption. We discussed lobbying that is directed to public officials since lobbying is a broader concept that implies different impacts on the public sphere, such as „mounting grass roots campaigns”, „talking with the people from the press and the media” etc. After introduction which explains some general features of corruption and lobbying, a brief comparative view of two notions was imposed emphasizing the fact that there are many similarities between them that could jeopardize the process of lobbying as an instrument of participatory democracy. It was stated that lobbying is still not recognize as legitimate and necessary in democracy. However, recognizing the importance of lobbying in modern democratic societies should lead to the regulating lobbying in an adequate manner in trying to obtain a wider confirmation. It means that every single lobbying regulation needs to ensure: transparency of the process; useful definition of terms especially of lobbying, lobbyist and lobbied person; accountability for violation of the lobbying and all the other relevant norms. With this lobbying could be the real alternative for the traditional participatory democracy. Contrary, lobbying is considered to be a significant generator of political corruption and other financial crimes, unless it is not properly regulated from the normative point of view.
Keywords: lobbying; corruption; participatory democracy; interest groups.
