Lobbying the auditing practices board : analysis of responses to the expanded audit report

In 1993 the Auditing Practice Board (APB) in the United Kingdom issued Statement of Auditing Standard 600, Auditors’ Reports on Financial Statements. The new expanded audit report was issued in an attempt to reduce the audit expectations gap. Prior to the issuing of this standard the APB issued a Consultative Document in 1991 and an Exposure Draft in 1992. In this paper we investigate the comments made to the APB by respondents to these two documents. We found that a number of respondents doubted whether the new standard was of itself sufficient to reduce the expectations gap. In addition, we found that where respondents made substantive suggestions for changes to the proposed standard these generally were not implemented by the APB.

Lobbying by ethnic groups and aid allocation

We develop a political-economic model of foreign aid allocation. Each ethnic group in the donor country lobbies the government to allocate more aid to its country of origin, and the government accepts political contributions from lobby groups. Initial per-capita income of the recipients and those of the ethnic groups are shown to be important determinants of the solution of the political equilibrium. We also examine the effects of changes in the degree of corruption, aid fatigue, and ethnic composition, in the donor country on the allocation of aid.

Lobbying by Trade Associations on EU Climate Policy

Climate change has been recognised as one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century. Its impacts, and they way that we choose to deal with them will profoundly affect how business and society operates. This report focuses on European Union (EU) climate policy – the governance structures, rules and regulations that have been put in place at the EU level to attempt to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Specifically, it focuses on how trade associations representing industrial sectors or broader business interest have lobbied on EU climate policy, and the impact that they have had on the policymaking process. The report then goes on to discuss whether the impacts of this lobbying align with the stated policies of the companies that are members of these trade associations.

On Complexity of Lobbying in Multiple Referenda

In this paper we show that lobbying in conditions of “direct democracy” is virtually impossible, even in conditions of complete information about voters preferences, since it would require solving a very computationally hard problem. We use the apparatus of parametrized complexity for this purpose.

Du recrutement au lobbying: une étude de l'utilisation du marketing politique par les groupes d'intérêt au Québec

L’objectif de ce mémoire est double. D’une part, il vise à proposer un cadre d’analyse novateur permettant d’étendre le modèle du marketing politique, traditionnellement limité au cas des partis politiques, en l’appliquant aux stratégies de recrutement (en amont) et de lobbying (en aval) des groupes d’intérêt. D’autre part, il a pour but de donner un nouveau souffle à l’étude des groupes d’intérêt en tant que sous-champ de la science politique en situant leur action dans une perspective dynamique et stratégique. De façon plus spécifique, cette recherche vise à évaluer, à l’aide de deux hypothèses, le degré de déploiement global de l’approche marketing chez les groupes d’intérêt au Québec et à comparer son niveau de pénétration spécifique au sein des différentes organisations. La première hypothèse avance que le degré de déploiement global du marketing politique auprès des groupes d’intérêt québécois s’avère relativement faible en raison d’un certain nombre de facteurs contextuels qui ont historiquement limité son intégration au sein de leurs stratégies de recrutement et de lobbying. La seconde hypothèse affirme pour sa part que le niveau de pénétration spécifique de l’approche marketing est limité à certaines organisations et varie en fonction de certains facteurs qui peuvent s’avérer contradictoires. Les données recueillies lors d’entrevues menées auprès de douze des principaux groupes d’intérêt actifs à l’échelle du Québec tendent à confirmer les deux hypothèses.

Désunis dans l'adversité : le lobbying des consommateurs américains pendant le conflit du bois d'oeuvre

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Setting UK standards on the concept of control: an analysis of lobbying behaviour

The present study aims to contribute to an understanding of the complexity of lobbying activities within the accounting standard-setting process in the UK. The paper reports detailed content analysis of submission letters to four related exposure drafts. These preceded two accounting standards that set out the concept of control used to determine the scope of consolidation in the UK, except for reporting under international standards. Regulation on the concept of control provides rich patterns of lobbying behaviour due to its controversial nature and its significance to financial reporting. Our examination is conducted by dividing lobbyists into two categories, corporate and non-corporate, which are hypothesised (and demonstrated) to lobby differently. In order to test the significance of these differences we apply ANOVA techniques and univariate regression analysis. Corporate respondents are found to devote more attention to issues of specific applicability of the concept of control, whereas non-corporate respondents tend to devote more attention to issues of general applicability of this concept. A strong association between the issues raised by corporate respondents and their line of business is revealed. Both categories of lobbyists are found to advance conceptually-based arguments more often than economic consequences-based or combined arguments. However, when economic consequences-based arguments are used, they come exclusively from the corporate category of respondents.

Preparers’ and non-preparers’ lobbying on the proposed prohibition of goodwill amortisation in ED3 ‘business combinations’

In this paper preparers’ and non-preparers’ positions regarding accounting for goodwill are examined through studying submitted comment letters on ED3 ‘Business Combinations’. Preparers have, because of economic consequences, incentives to lobby for the non-amortisation approach and non-preparers for the amortisation approach. As hypothesised, non-preparers are found to support amortisation of goodwill to a greater extent than do preparers. Moreover, the two groups’ supportive arguments, i.e. how they argue for or against the non-amortisation or amortisation approach, are studied. Again, as hypothesised, the results show that the two groups use the same type of ‘sophisticated’ framework based arguments instead of economic consequences arguments. Taken together the examination of the comment letters thus indicates that both preparers and non-preparers point at conceptual strengths and weaknesses, instead of pointing at the real cause of the lobbying activities, i.e. perceived economic consequences, when they try to affect the final outcome of the standard. These findings confirm earlier research which has suggested that self-interested lobbyists use accounting theories and concepts as useful justifications.

The influence seekers : political lobbying in Australia

In this book specialists and professionals reflect on political lobbying in Australia, examining its history and growth and recent changes in its practice and regulation. The changing relationship between lobbying and the media and the role of lobbying in the business of government are closely analysed. Case studies of powerful lobby groups, such as the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and Business Council of Australia, are included. The authors’ view of the lobbyist is fresh and informative, and may serve to correct common misconceptions.

Looking at lobbying

A criticism of lobbying has been its clandestine nature, its ‘wheeling and dealing behind closed doors with the movers and shakers of the political party in government’ (Harrison, 2011, p.870), the behind doors scenes featuring a network of old connections. In some instances, this was the case but as is evidenced by the chapters in this book this style is now decades out of practice and the stereotype is undeserved.

Lobbying defined and observed

The critical and most obvious component of lobbying is the interaction an entity has with government. The executive, parliament and bureaucracy are the key players in the field. On the opposing side, to extend a sporting analogy, are the lobbyists – who are identified or labelled, singularly or plurally, by a variety of names: pressure groups, policy consultants, tariff consultants, public relations consultants, interest groups, special interest groups, industrial and professional associations, government relations managers, public affairs managers and Lloyd’s qualified term, the ‘political lobbyist’ .
All these nomenclatures require further explanation – some are used interchangeably, others are now an historical term only, some fall from the common language only to reappear at a later date. Of all, the oldest and most widely recognised is lobbyist and lobbying. Lloyd (1989) states that the term ‘lobby agent’ was first used in Westminster in the mid-17th century. In the United States Schriftgiesser (1951) writes that the famous American journalist H L Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore, traced the first use of the word lobby, as we currently understand it, to Washington DC in 1829. At that time the term lobby-agent was in use but it was shortened, by journalists, to lobbyist by 1832.
It has been suggested that the concept of lobbying – of seeking influence among the powerful – is as old as government e itself. Lloyd (1989) cites examples of lobbying from the Old and New testaments – the most famous pressure group being those who petitioned Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus Christ!
In the US the activities of lobbying were recognised before the term was coined when, according to Schriftgeisser (1951), ‘a little gang of painted –up merchants (who) pushed British tea into the salt water of Boston harbor’ (p4).
So the pedigree of lobbying activities is long and colourful. As the western form of parliamentary democracy has evolved and expanded among nations it seems that lobbying has been ever present on this journey. It is by its activities, its parts, that we can define and recognise lobbying most clearly and view the changes.