Public aspects of lobbying

Abstract

The article analyzes the promotion of public interests as a process of interaction and competition between various groups and organizations (NGOs, social movements, professional associations, etc.) that convey social issues, expressing their concerns and seeking solutions from the authorities. The author calls into question the rather widespread point of view that any really serious flaw in the social structure of society becomes the topic of public discourse and gets the attention of the authorities. Reliance on the “fairness” of the public interest asserted does not exclude such phenomena as clientelism and favoritism. The author shows that there is not, and cannot be, any even nominal equidistance of public interest groups from the institutions of power, and lobbying efficiency depends on the resource, organizational, value and cultural factors. Special attention is paid to the analysis of correlation between the institutional and informal in lobbying public interests.