LOBBYING IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: CHANGES AND PUBLIC RESPONSES=

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Lobbying has been accepted as legitimate practice and played an important part in the U.S. It helps to raise the voice of special interests as well as inform them of the legislative process. In order to be successful in doing business with U.S. enterprises the number of which is increasingly high, it is essential to understand lobbying thoroughly. Thus, this study was conducted with the hope of providing some fundamental concepts relating to lobbying in the U.S. as well as current laws on lobbying in the Obama Administration. The results were achieved through analyzing, synthesizing, comparing as well as contrasting and evaluating documents. The findings revealed that there were three basic first-ever lobbying polices in the Obama Administration, namely the revolving door bans, stimulus funds lobbying restrictions and lobbyist gift ban. Also, it was found that those policies got high-level criticism from the public, especially from interest groups, concerning their effectiveness,. Besides, they were believed to cause negative effects on the U.S. politics, respectively mass de-registration, diminished transparency, and, lack of information and experienced staff in the government. In a nutshell, it was concluded that though the Obama Administration desired to advance the goal of increased transparency, the results were not as high as the President had expected before.