In recent weeks the term "lobbyist" has been used and abused on the front pages - as always, on the other hand - to describe suspicious "fixers", scum caught up in the "strange trafficking" we are used to hearing about since the first news of our life.
If we query a dictionary, in this case the online one of Treccani, the definition of "lobby" is "group of people who, while not holding political power, are able to influence those who exercise it for the prestige they enjoy, for the wealth they possess and the like ", followed by the definitions derogatory: camarilla, clan, gang, cahoots, coven, coterie, conventicle, clique.
Well - you say - what's the problem? The definition is correct.
The anomaly (all national) is that the order of considerations among Italians is inverted and distorted to the point that an absolutely legal practice and guarantor of democracy and transparency is only synonymous with "ill-dealings" or "corruption".
And this result, this mystification, for the benefit of who can go? The fixers, the corrupters, the criminals.
Qpersonal potrhowever, he had yet another opinion in the eyes of many readers of a journalist provocateur.
To address the issue with the necessary authority we then interviewed a teacher who teaches what the business of lobbying in the academic field, prof. Pier Luigi Petrillo.
I hope it helps, at the very least, with better word discrimination.
Prof. Petrillo what term or synonym could be used instead of "lobbyist"?
Nobody else. The Italian language allows anyone to understand the difference between a vendor, intermediary and lobbyist. The lobbyist is the person who, in a professional manner and in virtue of a precise work assignment, in written form, decides to influence the public decision maker in order to have a certain advantage or a certain disadvantage to the interests represented. This is a fundamental constitutional right which, as recognized by the Constitutional Court in various judgments, represents an index of democracy in the Italian system.
What is lobbying?
It is an activity of persuasion of the public decision-maker based on the transmission of information and knowledge by an interest holder towards the decision maker. The lobbyist, we can say, is an informant of the public decision maker in the sense that he brings him to the knowledge of facts, data, elements of which he is often unaware. It is then up to the decision maker to listen to all the interests at stake and to satisfy those interests that he considers to be of greater importance for the community.
Does it only affect the economic sphere?
Absolutely no. The most powerful lobbies, in the sense of the most capable of affecting decision-making processes, are the non-economic ones: think of civic associations such as LAV, the anti-vivisection league, which has even managed to modify the Civil Code or to impose bans on the condominium regulations.
Could major projects or programs be implemented without lobbying?
Without lobbying, there would be no democratic decision-making process. Lobbies are prohibited where freedom of expression, freedom of association, social formation, the principle of equality is prohibited. Lobbying is inherent in the exercise of fundamental freedoms. Every public decision-making process is always the result of a lobbying action by opposing interests. The law must represent the general will; but in democracy the general will is always the fruit of a negotiation between opposing interests (and therefore of a lobbying action). It will then be up to the public decision maker to decide so that the interest of certain lobbies coincide with the widest possible interest.
Where does the lobbyist end up and the corrupter or fixer start?
In the Criminal Code. Personally I don't know any lobbyist who has ever corrupted. No coincidence that all the various characters who are periodically arrested on charges of doing hidden and illegal mediation, are not lobbyists, are not lobbying professionals, but are improvised mediators who, by virtue of friendship or political clientele they thought to exploit their knowledge and put it at the service of other people. This activity has nothing to do with lobbying.
Can a similar work be done in Italy without "doing favors" or complying with special requests?
The lobbyist does not do favors and does not indulge in special requests because he has nothing to offer in return except information and knowledge.
Abroad, in countries like the United States, lobbying has a very different consideration by ordinary people from ours. Why are corruption and bad business minor?
No, but rather because the greater the democratic sense of the population: Toqueville, when he visited at the beginning of the 800, America was entranced by the fact that each good American decided to participate in the decision-making process by forming an association representative of his own interest. In Italy we have a different concept of democracy based on the total passivity of the people, which accepts what the state decides in a passive way; in America, instead, the State does what the people want, it is not a foreign body and therefore it is natural that every public decision is the result of a lobbying action. This is why nobody is scandalized. A mythical sense of the Legislator is not sought as of an anointed by the Lord, a chosen superior to the elector, who knows what the good of the community is without confronting himself with the interests of the community. In Italy, however, this seventeenth-century logic of democracy still prevails.
How can legislation intervene?
Regulations are essential because they could make lobbying transparent. The great Italian problem is that, in the absence of rules, we do not know which lobbies are, how they operate, which interests they represent; and at the same time we do not know why the decision maker decided to indulge some lobbies rather than others. The policy, however, is contrary to the regulation of the lobbying phenomenon because in this way the altars would be discovered. Lobbies are a screen of politics. Behind them lies the politics that does not decide. If there were a law in this sense, citizens could know what happens, they could know why the public decision-maker - be it a minister or a simple parliamentarian - chose one way or another, on the basis of which meetings and interests. It is clear, therefore, that everyone should not regulate this relationship: it would become transparent why certain laws are passed rather than others.
What do you think of the crime "illicit trade in influences"?
It is a crime that affects the so-called illicit lobbying, that is to say those activities of influence aimed at determining a behavior of the public decision maker contrary to the duties of his office. It is clear, however, that it cannot function properly without a definition of lawful lobbying. If we say that something is illegal, we must also indicate the boundary of the lawful. Otherwise this criminal case risks being used to create abuses. This is a defect already noted in November of the 2012 by the Court of Cassation.
There are two elements that cut the bull's head. We have introduced this crime by virtue of the provisions of two international conventions on corruption. However, many countries that have incorporated - like Italy - these conventions have refused to introduce this criminal case in their order, considering it too vague. Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Holland, Great Britain. States that cannot be considered the cradle of corruption. We, on the other hand, have copied and pasted it in a slavish way.
Paola Severino herself - Minister of Justice when the so-called anti-corruption law was approved - told the Chamber that it would be necessary to adopt another legislation to regulate lobbying, because, otherwise, there would be the risk of an inappropriate application of this case. It seems to me that these two considerations clearly bring out the difficulties and contradictions we are experiencing in Italy.
Pier Luigi Petrillo is full professor of Comparative Public Law at the University of Rome Unitelma Sapienza and professor of theory and techniques of lobbying at Luiss Guido Carli. He was head of cabinet, head of the legislative office, deputy head of cabinet, director of the international affairs office, legal adviser to various ministers for the environment, agriculture, European policies, cultural assets and activities, university and research. He is currently head of the legislative office of the president of the Campania region.
Twitter @plpetrillo
(photo: Council Presidency Archive - Matteo Renzi visits the Nisida juvenile prison)
