4. Role of Commercial Lobbyists

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the role of commercial lobbyists, groups that are paid to lobby on behalf of business interests, focusing in particular on: (i) what commercial lobbyists do; (ii) criticisms of commercial lobbyists, and their response; (iii) the growth of commercial lobbying from the 1980s onwards; (iv) the trend for politicians and civil servants moving into jobs with lobbying companies – especially from certain departments (e.g. the Ministry of Defence) and within certain industries (e.g. energy); and (v) the attempts to regulate the sector, including the role of the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (set up in 2014).

Course

In this course, Professor Wyn Grant (University of Warwick) explores the importance of pressure groups and lobbying in the UK political system. In the first module, we think about the history of pressure groups and how they have changed over time, starting with the Anti-Corn Law League of the early 19th century and going all the way through the Extinction Rebellion in the present day. In the second module, we think about how we might categorise different kinds of pressure groups, before turning in the third module to a specific where a pressure group has set out to achieve a particular goal – and achieved it. In the fourth module, we think about the role of commercial lobbyists, i.e. groups that are paid to lobby on behalf of business interests, before turning in the fifth and final module consider whether pressure groups and lobbyists strengthen or undermine modern democracy.

Lecturer

Wyn Grant is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Warwick. In 2010 he was presented with the Diamond Jubilee Lifetime Achievement award of the Political Studies Association of the UK, and in 2011 he was elected an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. His most recent publication is Lobbying: The Dark Side of Politics (2018).