Lobbying – political corruption or social compromise

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the relationship between the concepts of «lobbying» and «corruption». The author analyzes domestic scientific approaches to the definition of lobbying and an understanding of its role in finding a compromise between the interests of citizens, civil servants and representatives of the corporate sector. The identification of lobbying and corruption by a significant part of citizens, according to the researcher, is due to the lack of experience of civilized lobbying in Ukraine. But, the corporate sector realizes its interests through shadow lobbyism, which often borders on outright corruption. This gives rise to a latent social conflict, which has a number of negative consequences: low economic growth rates, the tendency of a significant proportion of citizens to break the rule of law, and the lack of political stability in our state.
 Particular attention is paid to the study of the norms of domestic anti-corruption legislation and draft laws published by domestic researchers and politicians, that was aimed at regulating lobbying in Ukraine. It has been ascertained that in spite of the rather wide variability of approaches to developing the circle of lobbying subjects, almost all authors of draft laws determine the list of officials who cannot be subjects of lobbying under any circumstances. We are talking about representatives of the armed forces, security structures, the judiciary and the like. Moreover, given the absence of legal regulation of lobbying and the list of officials whose activities are regulated by anti-corruption legislation, the existing shadow lobbyism is appropriate to attribute to corruption.
 In the process of research, the author convincingly argues that legal lobbying cannot be considered political corruption. The main difference between lobbying and corruption (in practice) is due to the ultimate goal of the process.
 An analysis of the norms of anti-corruption legislation indicates that after the adoption of any of the bills proposed by the lobbyists, corruption will be considered only the format of interaction between government officials and business representatives (or other initiative groups of citizens) that was not provide by the law. According to the author, a side effect of the adoption of the law on lobbyism will be a reduction in the list of acts that can be considered corruption, and therefore – an automatic reduction in the level of corruption in Ukraine.