THE ISSUE OF DEFINITION

The OECD defines 'lobbying' as solicited communication, oral or written, with a public official to influence legislation, policy or administrative decisions and recognizes that although 'lobbying' most often focuses on the legislative branch, it does also occur within the executive and sub-national governments as well, for example by influencing the design of development projects and the award of contracts.

The OECD recognizes that although globalization has established similar methods of 'lobbying', actual 'lobbying' practices are deeply embedded in a country's democratic and constitutional setting. For instance, they are interrelated with constitutional rights to petition government, interest representation and consultation mechanisms such as 'social partnerships'.

The OECD makes two important observations:

1. The findings of the OECD survey indicates that no single definition of 'lobbying' is used across member countries an existing rules related to 'lobbying' reflect particular concerns that they attempt to address in their national contexts and

2. While 'lobbying' is widely considered a legitimate activity per se across OECD countries and beyond, the OECD acknowledges that 'lobbying' continues to have many negative connotations in many societies.

According to the OECD definitions of 'lobbyists' and 'lobbying' should be robust and unambiguous enough to withstand court and legal challenges. Definitions it goes on to say should not allow space for misreading, misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Vague or partial definitions of who is covered by the policies or regulations and what activities are encompassed could well endanger the proper functioning of policies and regulations for enhancing transparency in lobbying and lead to non-compliance. Moreover, it can increase public cynicism about the effectiveness of the policy or regulation and jeopardize efforts to maintain public trust.

For its part AALEP is of the opinion that instead of 'lobbyists' and 'lobbying' it is preferable to make reference to PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCATES and PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY which terms certainly resolve the negative connotation of 'lobbyists' and 'lobbying' as well as provide an umbrella definition that all participants in the process (private sector interests, public sector interests, NGOs, public affairs consultancies etc.) would most certainly agree to in all OECD member countries and beyond.