Corporate lobbying - inluencing decision making in Washington

CACI International
Breakdown of lobbying expenses.

Titan: L-3 Communications Titan
Breakdown of political campaign contributions

Breakdown of all recipients in 2002
Breakdown of all recipients in 2004
Breakdown of all recipients in 2006
Could do data analysis showing recipients are overhwleimgly republican.

Blackwater USA
Breakdown of lobbying expenses.

Halliburton Co
Breakdown of political campaign contributions

The private contractor-GOP gravy trainFrom Blackwater to CACI, mercenary companies in Iraq have a warm and cozy relationship with the Republican politicians who are employing them. " Excellent breakdown of revolving door policies and clear conflict of interests.
Schlesinger, R (2004) 'The private contractor-GOP gravy train' Salon, New York, May 11th 2004

**Being fairminded, we should recognise also that Human Rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International do also attempt to lobby government action. Further these actions could also be seen as an attempt to push a particular course of action that may well be different from that of the majority of the population, and in that sense could be seen as subverting democracy. Nonetheless, we should also recognise that the Defence Industry as a whole gives around $9million dollars a year in political contibutions, a total of over $92 million dollars in the last decade. Human Rights groups have given no sizeable amounts according to the Centre for Responsive Politics. while their lobbying efforts are considerable, in dollar terms they are several orders of magnitude smaller.
Human Rights Watch lobbying
Defense contributions.


Contract recipients
Details of blackwater contracts by year

"# The CBO estimates that as of early 2008, at least 190,000 contractor personnel, including subcontractors, were working on U.S.-funded contracts in the Iraqi theater. Just fewer than 40 percent of them are citizens of the country where the work is being performed (primarily Iraq); about 20 percent are U.S. citizens.
# U.S. agencies awarded $85 billion in contracts for work to be principally performed in the Iraqi theater, accounting for almost 20 percent of funding for operations in Iraq. More than 70 percent of those awards were for contracts performed in Iraq itself."
US Congress (2008) 'Contractors’ Support of US Operations in Iraq' Congressional Budget Office, US Congress, Washington, August 2008 report

Google scholar search for Iraq contractors.

**This New York Times article paints a clear picture of government contractors having completely insufficient oversight or control and weak regualtory structures. It also suggests strongly that the political campaign contributions and lobbying are ensuring that a correupt system is taking hold.
Shane, S; Nixon R (2007) 'In Washington, contractors take on biggest role ever' New York Times, 4 Feb 2007 link

Revoloving door: network analysis of Bush administration and corporate power
'Results indicated that the Bush administration drew more heavily than the Clinton administration on corporate officers and directors.Concludes that there is evidence to show that government service can serve as a conduit for joining the ranks of the corporate elite.'
Etzion D, Davis G F (2008)'Revolving doors? A network analysis of corporate officers and U.S Government officials' Journal of Management Inquiry, Sep 2008 Vol 17 No 3 link

"This article illustrates three ways in which corporations can undermine representative democracy and the public good: promoting legislation that benefits corporations at the expense of individual citizens, the capturing of regulatory agencies by those whom the agencies were designed to regulate, and the privatization of functions that have historically been the mandate of local, state, and federal governments."
Barley, S (2007) 'Corporations, democracy, and the public good' Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 16, No. 3, 201-215 link

"research on the role of corporations in democratic societies, the authors convened a Professional Development Workshop at the 2007 Academy of Management annual meeting in Philadelphia. The ideas presented in this workshop are summarized in the following articles. In this introduction, the authors review some key points from the presentations delivered and highlight some theoretical orientations and questions that can guide future empirical analysis in this important and exciting domain." Marti, I; Etzion, D; Leca, L (2008) 'Theoretical Approaches for Studying Corporations, Democracy, and the Public Good' Journal of Management Inquiry, September 1 2008; 17(3) 148 - 151
link