Not really, says Geoff Lorenz of University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
LOBBYISTS ARE NOT unethical per se. True, most organizations that lobby have narrow policy agendas, which can induce legislators to pay disproportionate attention to issues that their constituents don’t care about. But ultimately, lobbyists trade on their reputations – if people think you’re unreliable, it’ll be harder for you to get your job done. In that sense, lobbyists are only able to be unethical to the extent that legislators and other policymakers don’t care about good ethics.
