Without reforms, ethical lobbying in Congress may remain theexception

While lobbying has been part of politics in Washington D.C for decades, in recent years the number of corporations and groups that lobby has shot up, with more than $2 billion spent on lobbying in 2014. While this lobbying is legal, is it ethical? Thomas T. Holyoke attempts to define ethical lobbying and suggests reforms to the nation’s lobbying laws. He argues that increasing transparency and accountability so that those who lobbyists represent know what is being lobbied for on their behalf will help push lobbyists to behave more ethically

Being a member of an interest group stimulates political participation, or at least makes it easier

As political participation continues to decline, how can we encourage citizens to re-engage with politics and voting? One area that has seen participation increasing is membership in political interest groups. Using survey data from 1,071 individuals’ contacts with Congress, Thomas T. Holyoke examines the role of interest groups in stimulating political action and participation. He finds that many groups help to increase, or at least direct, their members’ political participation, so that those who are members of both political and professional interest groups have a greater than 60 percent chance of contacting Congress

Lobbying is growing in the US - more information may be the best regulation.

Lobbying in US politics is not new, but recent revelations over lobbying by Trump election campaign members on behalf of foreign governments and others has brought the practice into renewed focus. Thomas T. Holyoke and Timothy M. LaPira give an overview of a special issue of the journal, Interest Groups & Advocacy, which outlines how lobbying is growing, how its ..

The Role of Biophysical Stickiness on Oil-Mineral Flocculation and Settling in Seawater

Biophysical cohesive particles in aquatic systems, such as extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and clay minerals, play an important role in determining the transport of spilled oil contamination and its eventual fate, particularly given that suspended sediment and microbial activities are often prevalent and diverse in natural environments. A series of stirring jar tests have been conducted to understand the multiple structures characteristics of the oil-mineral aggregates (OMAs) and EPS-oil-mineral aggregates (EPS-OMAs). OMAs and EPS-OMAs have been successfully generated in the laboratory within artificial seawater using: Texas crude oil (Dynamic viscosity: 7.27 × 10–3 Pa⋅s at 20°C), two natural clay minerals (Bentonite and Kaolin clay), and Xanthan gum powder (a proxy of natural EPS). A magnetic stirrer produced a homogeneous turbulent flow with a high turbulence level similar to that under natural breaking waves. High-resolution microscopy results show that EPS, kaolinite, and bentonite lead to distinguished oil floc structures because of the different stickiness character of EPS and mineral clay particles. With relatively low stickiness, kaolinite particles tend to attach to an oil droplets surface (droplet OMAs) and become dominant in small-sized flocs in the mixture sample. In contrast, the more cohesive bentonite particles stickiness could adsorb with oil droplets and are thus dominated by larger sized flocs. Biological EPS, with the highest stickiness, demonstrated that it could bond multiple small oil droplets and form a web structure trapping oil and minerals. Generally, adding EPS leads to flake/solid OMAs formation, and individual oil droplets are rarely observed. The inclusion of ESP within the matrix, also reduced the dependence of settling velocity on floc size and mineral type.</jats:p

Biophysical flocculation reduces variability of cohesive sediment settling velocity

Biophysical cohesion, introduced predominantly by Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) during mineral flocculation in subaqueous environments, plays important role in morphodynamics, biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem processes. However, the mechanism of how EPS functioning with cohesive particles and affects settling behaviors remain poorly understood. We measure initial flocculation rate, floc size and settling velocity of mineral and artificial EPS (Xanthan gum) mixtures. Combining results from these and previous studies demonstrate coherent intensification of EPS-related flocculation compare with those of pure mineral and oil-mineral mixtures. Importantly, the presence of EPS fundamentally changes floc structure and reduces variability of settling velocity. Measured data shows that ratios of microfloc and macrofloc settling velocity for pure mineral flocs is 3.9 but greatly reduced to a lowest value of 1.6 due to biological EPS addition. The low variability of settling velocity due to EPS participation explains the seemingly inconsistent results previously observed between field and laboratory studies

Our lobbyists don’t always advocate for what we want them to.

Americans often express concern about the lobbying profession, and they should, but not necessarily for the reasons most think. The majority of people are represented by lobbyists, though they do not always realize it. The problem is that lobbyists may not always be lobbying in the best interests of the people they represent. In new research which examines lobbying on bills in the US Congress, Thomas T. Holyoke finds that in 15 percent of cases lobbyists apparently lobbied against the interests of those they represent

Interest groups and lobbying: pursuing political interest in America

Interest groups and lobbyists play a crucial role in how public policy is made in the United States? representative democracy. Interest Groups and Lobbying is an accessible and comprehensive text that examines the crux of this conflict. Pulling together two areas of interest group research?why advocacy organizations form and how they are able to gain influence in Washington, DC?Thomas T. Holyoke shows students the inner workings of interest groups in the United States. Using case studies to clarify and expand on the issues surrounding lobbying and group action in federal, state, and local government, Holyoke explores how we can use interest groups and their adversarial impulse to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people