Lobbying in developing countries: The Peruvian case

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1901
• Date: 01 May 2020
• Author: Carolina A. Carbone
• Published date: 01 May 2020

COMMENTARY

Lobbying in developing countries: The Peruvian case

Carolina A. Carbone

Director of the Public and Institutional

Relations undergraduate program, School of

Humanities, Universidad de Belgrano, Buenos

Aires, Argentina

Correspondence

Carolina A. Carbone, Director of the Public

and Institutional Relations undergraduate

program, School of Humanities, Universidad

de Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Email: carolcarbone@hotmail.com; carolina.

carbone@ub.edu.ar

In the transparent exercise of democracy, there is a technique of persuasion called

lobbying. The technique involves applying persuasion by representing one's own

interests or the interests of third parties. In literature, lobbying is therefore related

to interest groups and pressure groups. It is considered a key tool to guarantee equal

conditions in the decision‐making process that promotes democracy and citizen con-

trol is transparency.

Lobbying, also called interest management, is a legitimate activity that in Latin Amer-

ica has a bad press and consequently a bad reputation. However, it is a very important

input into the democratic process. According to the NGO Legislative Directory: “It

allows the general public to engage in the public decision‐making process, and it has

the potential to improve the quality of public decisions by opening channels for

diverse opinions and thematic experts.”It is an activity that is put into practice in all

countries of the world and that has a regulatory background in most countries of

the northern hemisphere and in some South American countries such as Peru and

Chile. The general spirit of these norms is to “transform a suspected irregular activity

into a deliberation and democratic game,”justify the Legislative Directory.

1|INTRODUCTION

There are non‐legitimate lobbying practices that use deceptive

methods. This type of behavior that is not transparent negatively influ-

ences political processes. Non‐transparent material and unfair forms

of lobbying activities increase when they go largely unnoticed by the

international community. On the other hand, in accordance with

Laboutková and Vymětal (2018), “The media and inappropriate use

of the term make a great contribution to the negative perception of

lobbying activities”(p. 166).

2|LOBBYING IN THE WORLD

According to Transparency International (2015), Germany, Australia,

Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Slovenia, the United States, France,

Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro,

Peru, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan are the 20 countries

that, as of May 2015, under the International Standards for the Regu-

lation of Lobbying have some type of norm linked to the regulation of

lobbying.

Lobbying is any activity aimed at influencing the policies and deci-

sions of a government in favor of a cause. Lobbyingallows the voice of

stakeholders to be heard.All citizens havethe right to petition theauthor-

ities and have their voices heard. Somehow citizens lobby when they

write to representatives or demonstrate through marches for example.

But there are also professional lobbyists who are paid to defend

the specific interests of their clients (companies or organizations in

the third sector) before public officials.

Lobbying is a mechanism of position or action in front of

the public power. The French call them pressure groups,

the North American interest groups, and in Latin

America “lobbying”or euphemistically “support groups”;

while in Peru it has been called “interest management.”

(Sierralta Rios, 2005)

According to Esparcia Castillo (2011), regulations have been

established in the world to control the actions of these lobbying

groups. The American Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act (the first

in the world) in section 307 defines lobbying as

Any person, individual, society, committee, association,

corporation or any other organization or group of

Received: 15 November 2018 Accepted: 16 November 2018

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1901

J Public Affairs. 2019;e1901.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1901

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of5

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e1901. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1of5

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1901