Transparent Lobbying and Democracy

ISBN-13: 9783030360436 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020 / 266 str.

Sarka Laboutkova; Vit Simral; Petr Vymětal

Spis treści

1 Introduction

2 Democracy and lobbying

3 Transparency in democratic decision making

4 Methodology of research on lobbying regulation

5 A theoretical model of lobbying

6 Past and present practice of lobbying and its regulation

7 Transparent lobbying in Central and Eastern European Countries

8 Open Government and its impact on the lobbying environment in CEE countries

9 Conclusion

O autorze

Šárka Laboutková is Associate Professor at the Economics Department of the Faculty of Economics at the Technical University of Liberec (TUL), Czech Republic. Her research activity is primarily focused on the theory of impact of non-economic factors on decision-making in public policy, especially lobbying. She is an author of many journal articles and co-author of the first Czech comprehensive publication on lobbying, and regularly cooperates with anti-corruption NGOs as well as professional associations of lobbyists.

Vít Šimral currently serves as a Councillor of the City of Prague responsible for education, sports, science, and business development. Before entering politics he was a member of several anti-corruption bodies in Europe, both NGOs and in the public sector. He remains a part-time member of the Czech academia, carrying out research or teaching at the University of Hradec Králové and the Technical University of Liberec. His academic research focuses on issues of corruption, public procurement, political funding, and lobbying. Among his most recent works are chapters in Corruption and Norms: Why Informal Rules Matter (2018) and The Handbook of Political Party Funding (2018).

Petr Vymětal is Assistant Professor at the Political Science Department of the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic. His main field of research is lobbying and interest representation, political parties’ funding and campaign financing, corruption and the political-economic factors influencing economic policy. He is the co-author of the first Czech comprehensive publication on lobbying. He collaborates with anti-corruption civil sector organizations and is a member of working group on lobbying at the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic.

Blurb

This book deals with the current, as yet unsolved, problem of transparency of lobbying. In the current theories and prevalent models that deal with lobbying activities, there is no reflection of the degree of transparency of lobbying, mainly due to the unclear distinction between corruption, lobbying in general, and transparent lobbying. This book provides a perspective on transparency in lobbying in a comprehensive and structured manner. It delivers an interdisciplinary approach to the topic and creates a methodology for assessing the transparency of lobbying, its role in the democratization process and a methodology for evaluating the main consequences of transparency. The new approach is applied to assess lobbying regulations in the countries of Central Eastern Europe and shows a method for how lobbying in other regions of the world may also be assessed.

Šárka Laboutková is Associate Professor at the Economics Department of the Faculty of Economics at the Technical University of Liberec (TUL), Czech Republic.

Vít Šimral currently serves as a Councillor of the City of Prague responsible for education, sports, science, and business development.

Petr Vymětal is Assistant Professor at the Political Science Department of the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic.