"Lobbying Ethics," a Project of the
Woodstock Theological Center
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The text of The Ethics of Lobbying: Organized Interests, Political Power, and the Common Good is now available online in pdf format. (file size: 617k)
2004 Update:
On January 7, 2004, program director Edward B. Arroyo, S.J. led a seminar on
the Ethics of Lobbying at the Jesuits' new
Universidad Alberto Hurtado,
Santiago, Chile. The conference was titled "Lobbying: Intereses Organizados,
Poder Pólitico, y Bien Común." Here are photos of the panel of participants,
including Gonzalo Arroyo, S.J. (Moderator), Ramón Aboitiz (President of Sigdo
Koppers), José Miguel Insulza (Chile's Interior Minister), Fernando Echeverría
(President of the Chilean Cámara de Consrucción) , Enrique Correa (Director of
Correa y Correa), Ricardo Claro (President of the Companía Sudamericana de
Vapores), Eduardo Aninat, ( Ex minister of Hacienda and ex vicedirector of the
International Monetary Fund), and Fernando Montes, S.J. (University Rector). You
can find a copy of Arroyo's PowerPoint presentation (in Spanish)
here.
2002 Update:
Woodstock's Ethics in Public Policy program has conducted four years of research
to develop the Woodstock Principles for the Ethical Conduct of Lobbying,
which form the core conclusions of our book The Ethics of Lobbying: Organized
Interests, Political Power, and the Common Good, recently published by
Georgetown University Press. The Woodstock Principles deal in detail with
specific aspects of lobbying such as lobbyist-client relationships,
lobbyist-policy maker relationships, conflicts of interest, proper lobbying
strategies and tactics, and how lobbying relates to the common good. You
may
download an order form for the book.
An article on Father Edward Arroyo, S.J., and the lobbying ethics project
appeared in the October 11, 2002, edition of Loyola Today, Loyola
University, New Orleans.
On October 24, 2002, a
Woodstock Forum was held on the topic of ethics of lobbying was held to mark
the release of the project's book. An
article about the project and forum appeared in the December, 2002 issue of
National Jesuit News.
2001 Update:
In December, 2001, the program released the
final version of its Principles for the Ethical Conduct of Lobbying ("The
Woodstock Principles"). You may read the Principles here:
If you would like to register your own opinion
about the guidelines, please send them by e-mail to
arroyo@loyno.edu.
2000 Update:
On November 10, 2000, Woodstock hosted a Plenary
Conference on Lobbying Ethics at Georgetown University's Leavey Center. Below
are some of the documents prepared for this conference.
1)
The Ethics of Political Advocacy and the Integrity of the Democratic Process
2) Ethics in Lobbying: a
Case Study, along with
Case Study Issues and Questions
In addition to these documents we have prepared
as part of our project, we also suggest the following publicly available
materials for the political science and legal background of the project:
1)
Public
Law 104-65-Dec. 19,1995.
2)
Lobbying Disclosure Act Guidance - U.S. Senate
3) "The Changing Nature of Interest Group
Politics," pp 1-32 in Interest Group Politics, edited by Allan J. Cigler
and Burdett A. Loomis, 5th ed., 1998, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
1999 Update:
Rev. Edward Arroyo, S.J. now directs this important program. See
Ethics in Public Policy: A New Beginning in the
Woodstock Report, and
Woodstock Center Goes in Search of "Lobbying Ethics."
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Skepticism aside, Woodstock
Center Goes in Search of "Lobbying Ethics"
(by William Bole)
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Over the years, the Woodstock Theological Center
in Washington has forged into fields of study that may sound incongruous -- like
"ethical considerations in managed healthcare" and "the ethics of executive
compensation." In like fashion, the Jesuit-sponsored research center at
Georgetown University is now taking up what some skeptics would probably view as
another oxymoron: lobbying ethics.
Involving lobbyists as well as people in
government who are lobbied by them, the study is grappling with hefty questions
like whether or how special-interest lobbying can mesh with the pursuit of the
general good. The project will highlight a series of conferences, ending in two
years with release of a set of ethical guidelines for practitioners in the
field.
"We're very much in the early phase. Right now
we're simply trying to get an understanding of what's going on in the field of
lobbying," said
Father Edward B. Arroyo, S.J., who is coordinating the center's program, "Ethics
in Public Policy." Father Arroyo is a professor of Catholic social thought
at Loyola University in New Orleans
and editor of
Blueprint for Social Justice, published monthly by the
Twomey Center for Peace Through
Justice at Loyola.
During a small gathering in October at the
center's offices in Washington, he charted the discussion with a lengthy list of
questions such as:
"Do you think a lobbyist is simply an advocate
for his/her position, or is there any responsibility to expose countervailing
considerations to that which he/she is advocating?
What about the lobbyist's responsibility to the
'other side' of his/her position, e.g., the values represented in the opposing
view?
How is the common good represented in the values
advocated?
How is the preferential love of the 'least of
these' represented?"
In the first stage, Father Arroyo, a
sociologist, has headed straight to the field. He has interviewed more than two
dozen lobbyists and policy makers in Congress and the executive branch, as well
as journalists, political scientists, and policy advocates who are close to the
process.
One measure of the subject's sensitivity is that
all of them are participating in this search for understanding -- anonymously.
Lobbyists often get pegged as peddlers of narrow political or economic
interests, but Father Arroyo notes that as partners in public policy, they have
a serious calling in the world, as do their counterparts in business and
government. In other words, "lobbying ethics" isn't necessarily an oxymoron.
At any rate, as Father Arroyo is quick to
emphasize, the Woodstock Center isn't rushing to judgment. "It is much too early
for us to make any generalizations or draw any conclusions," he said. The
conclusions will be saved for a singular set of recommendations scheduled for
distribution in 2001. These will be unusual partly because, unlike lawyers and
doctors, for example, lobbyists have no functioning code of professional ethics.
(What they have in spades are federal rules and restrictions covering such
activities as financial contributions to public officials and potential
conflicts of interest.) The Woodstock Center isn't aiming to fill that void with
its own code, but does plan to broadly circulate a monograph to "provide some
ethical reflections and even guidelines for those involved" in lobbying
activities, Father Arroyo said.
Besides him, members of Woodstock's
Ethics in Public Policy team include the center's director, Father
James L. Connor, S.J.; Michael McCarthy, professor of political philosophy
at Vassar College and author of
"The Crisis of Philosophy" (State University of New York Press, 1989); and
Philip Lacovara, partner in the law firm Mayer, Brown & Platt, based in
Washington and New York.
The lobbying study is the first undertaking of
the ethics-in-policy program, inaugurated at a February 1998 dinner. "We
decided that since lobbying is the junction point that brings together all the
constituents in the public policy arena, it was a good place to start," Lacovara
said at the kick-off. "What we're going to try to do is come up with some useful
principles ? as real-world, practical guidance for people who are involved in
this process." Lacovara's Washington experience includes stints as deputy
solicitor general in the U.S. Justice Department and counsel to the Watergate
Special Prosecutor.
This is the first time since its early years
that the 25-year-old
Woodstock Center has set out to chronicle how public policy as such is
formulated in the nation's capital. "Lobbying seems to be expanding to the
global level and devolving to the local level. Right now we're focusing only on
the Washington experience," said Father Arroyo, adding that the project might
perhaps be expanded later, to analyze lobbying at other levels.
"As a sociologist, I find it really interesting
to get to know the players in this field, and to work on a team with a
prosecuting lawyer, theologian, and political philosopher," he added, referring
to Lacovara, Father Connor, and McCarthy, respectively.
William Bole is an associate fellow of
the Woodstock Theological Center.
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