Even so, in other countries it is lived with total naturalness. In the United States, for example, it is not only carried out by companies but also by institutions and even citizens.
As the Canadian consultant and expert in public affairs, María Laptev, rightly says, the lobby is to cause a government to act, change or modify legislation. In this way, lobbying becomes one more tool of democracy since it allows politicians to listen to citizens from the moment it becomes a channel for the interests of society to reach decision makers.
Under this dynamic, series like scandal, House of Cards or the wonderful Borgenhave opened the door to keep an eye on this activity and analyze whether it is possible to carry it out in an ethical manner.
In this sense, the scandals that have surrounded and surround the lobby throughout the world, they are testimony to the need to regulate its exercise or improve its regulation in the case of countries where one already exists.
In line with the above, there are three critical and interrelated areas in the effective regulation of lobby which are transparency, integrity and participation.
Therefore, the purpose of regulating it must be to guarantee the transparency of the impact of its exercise in the decision-making process, as well as the responsibility of decision-makers for the policies and laws enacted.
In short, the regulation of pressure groups must aim to guarantee equal conditions for all in such a way that the actors who participate in the decision-making process do so in total equality and through specific mechanisms established precisely to avoid possible conflicts of interest that may arise from attempts to influence a certain decision.
At this point, it is also important to point out that the need for regulation is only one of the elements necessary to guarantee a lobby fair, and that any attempt at regulation requires a broader disposition of all the actors involved to act in an ethical and responsible manner.
A quality democracy, in heterogeneous societies such as ours, requires a high degree of maturity on the part of all. This implies being aware that problems are managed and to do it well, all the parties involved must be listened to, and establish guarantees in the relationship such as transparency, the participation of all and access to decision makers. In short, if we want to move in the best possible direction, we have to stop looking at the ethical and transparent exercise of lobby as a utopia and begin to see it as a clear, necessary and urgent possibility.