[governance] Facebook spent $4 million to lobby U.S. lawmakers in 2012

[Roland Perry]

In message <51015DF8.6070803 at gmail.com>, at 18:14:48 on Thu, 24 Jan 
2013, Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> writes

>> Given that it's not democracy (in the Athenian sense), rather
>> it's "representative democracy"; what's the problem with people 
>>telling/reminding their representatives what views they should be
>> representing for them?
>
>Nothing if one relies on formal equality between people and 
>corporations as the US Supreme (?) court found in Citizens United, that 
>has caused a flurry of concern amongst some segments of civil society...

There are always going to be people more skilled at approaching their 
representatives than others.

One of the things which I like about the UK's version of representative 
democracy is that anyone can get a local appointment[1] with their MP 
(often on a Friday afternoon or Saturday) irrespective of their 
individual "convening power".

It's the latter which large corporations pay very large sums to achieve 
in the Capital (Monday to Thursday).

[1] Whether they can be persuasive in that appointment is another thing.
-- 
Roland Perry

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