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

[michael gurstein]

I think the issue is whether or not the outcome is in the (general) public
interest or rather serves narrow sectional (corporate) private interests.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/22/local/la-me-att-20120422

The US system appears skewed towards the latter and this is shocking and
disturbing to those (including many in the US) who find this to be a form of
corruption and as undermining democracy.

Arguably, as in the recent WCIT, we are seeing an extension of these
processes into the global Internet sphere, in this instance not to direct
governance oversight and regulation but to prevent it altogether.

This is not about your gran meeting with her MP to discuss the euthanasia or
not, of feral cats.

M

-----Original Message-----
From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org
[mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Roland Perry
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 8:34 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: Re: [governance] Facebook spent $4 million to lobby U.S. lawmakers
in 2012

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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