“Next Door They Have Regulation, But Not Here …”: Assessing the Opinions of Actors in the Opaque World of Unregulated Lobbying

The lobbying of government by various interests is regarded as central to the democratic process. Deliberative democratic theorists tell us that the regulation of lobbying has a positive effect on political systems, and the behaviour of those within them. Yet, only a small number of democracies have implemented legislation regulating lobbyists’ activities. Even within these countries, certain jurisdictions still have not enacted lobbying regulations. Here we examine the attitudes of actors in these unregulated provinces, states and institutions towards the idea of lobbying legislation. This ensures that in the broader context the actors we deal with have knowledge of lobbying regulations, and what these regulations entail, as well as the consequences of the absence of such regulations for their jurisdictions. Our objective is to discover if these actors see benefits in the introduction of lobbying legislation, as is suggested by deliberative democratic theory, or, are they perfectly happy without regulations?