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Synonyms

Civic engagement; Political activity

Definitions

Around the world, lobbying is commonly referred to as any activity undertaken by interest groups, including nonprofit organizations, to influence the legislative or public policy-related actions of lawmakers and public officials. What constitutes lobbying and the extent to which such activity is regulated is largely determined by sovereign governments. In the United States (US), nonprofit legal experts as well as practitioners define lobbying more narrowly as efforts to impact specific legislative actions, such as supporting or opposing pending legislation.

Introduction

Despite the rapid growth of the nonprofit sector and the proliferation of research in this field, nonprofit lobbying is an area that presents several challenges for scholars and practitioners. For example, there has been confusion over the exact definition of lobbying and how it differs from advocacy. In addition, legal and regulatory frameworks for nonprofit...

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Correspondence to Meeyoung Lamothe .

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Lamothe, M., Bell, E. (2017). Lobbying. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3010-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3010-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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