RECAP AND FINAL THOUGHTS

The primary objective of this book was to paint a broad picture of what lobbyists in America do. To serve this objective, I divided lobbying into three categories – public policy lobbying, land use lobbying, and procurement lobbying – and examined each category in detail. Specifically, I examined public policy lobbying in Chapters 3 and 4, land use lobbying in Chapter 5, and procurement lobbying in Chapter 6. These substantive chapters were designed to present detailed information about who lobbyists are, what interests they represent, how they do their jobs, and to what extent they affect government decisions. Here, I want to recap my findings by addressing the same set of questions I addressed at the end of Chapters 4, 5, and 6. I conclude with final observations about lobbying and lobbyists in the United States. RECAP OF SUBSTANTIVE FINDINGS Public policy lobbying, land use lobbying, and procurement lobbying have a lot in common. In many ways, however, they are different, as you have learned. Where Does Lobbying Take Place? As Chapters 3–6 demonstrate, lobbying takes place at all three levels of government – local, state, and national. As I pointed out in Chapters 1 and 2, journalists and scholars alike tend to focus their attention on Washington lobbying, rather than on state or local lobbying. This Washington-centric bias notwithstanding, the data clearly show that lobbying in America takes place wherever government decisions are made – in Washington, in state capitals, in cities, in towns, in counties, and in villages.