In 1971 Lewis Powell, an American lawyer who would go on to become a Supreme Court judge, wrote a memorandum for the Chamber of Commerce. Business was the victim of a "broadly based and consistently pursued" assault, he argued. There were few elements of American society that had "as little influence in government as the American businessman, the corporation, or even the millions of corporate stockholders." It was time for companies to change all this-and acquire political power. "Such power must be assiduously cultivated; and that, when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination." Powell has been granted his wish. In 2012 corporate America accounted for more than three-quarters of the $3.3 billion spent on lobbying in Washington, DC. General Electric was the market leader, spending $21.4111, and Google came second, with $18.2m. And this is just lobbying in the strict sense defined by American law-ie, the work of registered lobbyists, employed to make direct contact with congressmen and officials. Businesses also employ innumerable other people, in areas such as "government relations", "public affairs" or "corporate communications", whose job, in plain English, involves lobbying for or against changes in public policy. Then there are the countless business-funded outfits that say they are simply providing information about a particular industry, and the army of friendly, corporate-sponsored academics, who are all indulging in a subtler form of lobbying.
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