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Not sure I understand what you're saying in the last paragraph, but critique against lobbying definitely hits closer to home recently in EU at least; eg. just y

Not sure I understand what you're saying in the last paragraph, but critique against lobbying definitely hits closer to home recently in EU at least; eg. just yesterday, French magazine Le Point has published a leaked Google memo detailing their strategy against new EU legislation [1]; paywalled, unfortunately, but [2] (in German) has some more details. After all, politicians in democracies should be responsible to their electorate, shouldn't they? [1]: https://www.lepoint.fr/high-tech-internet/exclusif-comment-google-veut-faire-plier-bruxelles-28-10-2020-2398468_47.php https://www.lepoint.fr/high-tech-internet/exclusif-comment-g... [2]: https://www.lobbycontrol.de/2020/11/mit-harten-bandagen-wie-google-strengere-regeln-fuer-internetplattformen-verhindern-will/ https://www.lobbycontrol.de/2020/11/mit-harten-bandagen-wie-...

michaelt 6y ago
> Not sure I understand what you're saying in the last paragraph If a big American corporation is transferring lots of money from Europe to America while engaging in some sketchy behaviour, Europe might be more enthusiastic about clamping down on that than America. For both financial reasons and due to different political priorities. It's not like Europe could unilaterally reverse Google's purchase of Youtube or Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp.
einpoklum 6y ago
> politicians in democracies should be responsible to their electorate, shouldn't they? Unfortunately, I don't think we can say that they should. I mean, in democratic ideology they should, but democratic state institutions, legal and organizational arrangements are not fashioned to achieve this outcome; and most democratic states were not, after all, created by the mass of people setting up those arrangements. Rather, elite groups and powerful interests set such states up, with democratic elections being a mechanism for legitimizing the new regime among the masses, or a concession to public pressure.

michaelt 6y ago

> Not sure I understand what you're saying in the last paragraph If a big American corporation is transferring lots of money from Europe to America while engaging in some sketchy behaviour, Europe might be more enthusiastic about clamping down on that than America. For both financial reasons and due to different political priorities. It's not like Europe could unilaterally reverse Google's purchase of Youtube or Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp.

einpoklum 6y ago

> politicians in democracies should be responsible to their electorate, shouldn't they? Unfortunately, I don't think we can say that they should. I mean, in democratic ideology they should, but democratic state institutions, legal and organizational arrangements are not fashioned to achieve this outcome; and most democratic states were not, after all, created by the mass of people setting up those arrangements. Rather, elite groups and powerful interests set such states up, with democratic elections being a mechanism for legitimizing the new regime among the masses, or a concession to public pressure.