Evaluating and regulating the impacts of lobbying in the EU? The case study of green industries

How should we evaluate and regulate the impacts of lobbying in the European Union (EU)? The current lack of transparency around lobbying activities and the absence of formal regulation mean that a hidden lobbying problem may prevail. The tentative case study of green industries in the EU is illustrative. The wind turbine industry, for example, benefits from ambitious environmental target levels for greenhouse gas reductions that will increase the future market for renewable energy. In contrast, for example, no environmental target levels exist that increase the future market shares of organic farming. Rational choice theory suggests that lobbying and group size advantages can explain the observed difference in achieving environmental target levels. The EU may learn from the US legislation as a starting point for a best‐practice solution and future evaluation of impacts of lobbying in the EU

The Battle for the Remote Control—Has the FCC Indecency Policy Worn Out its Welcome in America\u27s Living Room?

The Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide whether the Federal Communications Commission‘s (the FCC or the Commission ) indecency policy violates the First and Fifth Amendments (Fox IV). Oral argument was heard on January 10, 2012. The case is on appeal from the Second Circuit, which struck down the FCC\u27s indecency policy in Fox Television Stations, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (Fox III) as impermissibly vague in violation of free speech. Part I of this Note traces the history of the FCC‘s indecency policy. It discusses relevant technological advances that are useful in filtering television programming to safeguard children from indecent material. Part II of this Note examines the strengths and weaknesses of the FCC‘s indecency policy and the case law that has helped shape it into its current form. This analysis includes arguments for and against maintaining, eliminating, or modernizing the policy. Part III of this Note discusses my proposals for resolving the First Amendment and censorship issues arising from the FCC indecency policy as it stands today

Talking about the 'rotten fruits' of Rio 2016:framing mega-event legacies

Legacy has become a watchword of hosting mega-events in recent years, used to justify massive spending and far-reaching urban transformations. However, academic studies of legacy outcomes suggest there is only limited evidence for the efficacy of using mega-events to deliver broader policy goals. The discourse of legacy promulgated by the International Olympic Committee promotes a fantastical vision of the possibilities created by mega-events while obfuscating critical analyses of legacy. This paper explores legacy talk among a wholly different group – activists who have protested against the Olympic Games, specifically in Rio de Janeiro – based on interviews conducted two years after the Games as part of a broader ethnographic study. The positive connotations of legacy, even among these Olympic critics, places a straitjacket on conversation, leading activists to discuss specific legacy projects, at the expense of highlighting the very real harms of mega-event development, such as evictions, gentrification and militarization. As such, there is a need to deepen understanding that legacy encompasses all that is left behind after mega-events, not only the positive impacts.</p

Indecent Proposals: A Legal Analysis of ‘Indecency’ Applied to Broadcasting and the Internet

The purpose of the dissertation was to analyze indecency policy and identify valid arguments and approaches from which one can find a viable model or approach of content regulation for both broadcast media and the Internet. Broadcast media and the Internet are both under scrutiny by the federal government for increased content regulation; therefore, both media are facing threatened First Amendments rights. This dissertation explored whether the public interest could be best served through the marketplace approach to content regulation of indecent speech on broadcast radio and television and the Internet. The dissertation explored, compared, and contrasted indecency regulation on broadcast radio and television with indecency regulation on the Internet. It attempted to find trends, patterns, similarities, and differences in the mandated and suggested policies centering on regulating indecency on commercial broadcast radio and television and the Internet. The study also looked at the direction the legislative and judicial branches are going concerning policies on regulating indecent content on the Internet. The dissertation found that the marketplace approach to indecency regulation has so far prevailed on the Internet, with the exception of CIPA. With emerging technologies such as Internet filters and V-Chips, further government regulation of indecent content on the Internet or on broadcast television and radio would be not be useful. A receiver-based content control approach proposed in the dissertation suggested that the marketplace approach to content regulation would better serve the public interest because the public’s interest would be defined by the public itself

A crusade for morality : status politics and Internet filtering legislation

This thesis demonstrates that particular interest groups supporting the limiting and restricting of patron access on Internet tenninals in public libraries is motivated by a desire to maintain their dominant cultural hegemony. These groups, identified in this work as Crusaders are seeking to pass federal legislation that would require that public libraries install Internet filtering software on public terminals or forfeit federal funding provided through the e-rate subsidy. The importance of such a law is not its instrumental value, but its symbolic value. The sociological theory known as status politics supplies the theoretical basis for this thesis. Briefly, status politics argues that laws serve a symbolic function in society. The laws of a society not only apply order to human behavior, but also reflect the values and beliefs of societal culture. Those who have the power to establish laws also have the power to impose their ideological beliefs and values on the general public. Those who have legislative power see their status and prestige reflected in the laws they establish. By applying Kenneth Burke\u27s five elements of dramaturgical analysis to Crusader testimony given in the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the Child Online Protection Act of 1998, and the Children\u27s Internet Protection Act of 1999, the strategies employed on the part of Crusaders to pass such legislation are revealed. This analysis shows the techniques employed by the Crusaders to convince their audience that Internet filtering laws must be established. This thesis shows that Crusader attempts to pass Internet filtering legislation is an example of status politics

Untangling the Web: Exploring Internet Regulation Schemes in Western Democracies

This Comment investigates past censorship schemes proposed and implemented by selected democratic administrations, in order to develop an improved framework and accompanying infrastructure that may accomplish the goals that these policies envisioned, but failed to achieve. The difficulty of this undertaking is in developing the intermediate and legally defensible parameters under which a regulation scheme can endure and gain support in a democratic society. The greater difficulty lies in developing a system that can accomplish these objectives in the burgeoning and ever-changing cyber realm. The challenges posed by Internet activity are novel ones, and the legitimacy of the actions taken in response is equally uncertain. This Comment examines the first wave of censorship approaches that have been drafted, proposed, and adopted by democratic nations, focusing on Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. By evaluating the censorship policies proposed by each of these nations, this Comment identifies and examines the successful as well as the ineffectual elements of each of these policies, in order to develop general guidelines under which a democratic Internet regulation scheme may one day legitimately operate