In 1983, my job required quite a bit of flying from Western Canada to Eastern Canada. I had a rather interesting conversation about lobbying with a seatmate.

Mark was a pilot for a northern aviation company in the Northwest Territories. Canada was embarking on some new aviation laws. Because aviation is much different in the north than in the south, Mark saw lots of bad things if the southern laws were applied up north. For some reason, the local Member of Parliament would or could not do much. So Mark's family-run company sent Mark to Ottawa to point out the flaws.

Mark was in Ottawa for a month. He was working phones in his hotel room to meet with underlings in government to eventually get some credibility to meet with the overlings. Finally, Mark got an hour-long meeting with the Minister of Transport to express his concerns.

Mark's story still has me believing that lobbyists have an important function. Hiring a lobbyist would have been more efficient for Mark's company. Not many organizations could not have affored to send someone like Mark for such a month-long mission.

Having said that, the line between honest lobbying and undue political influence is blurry. I find all the rules imposed on lobbysists to be rather impotent. To me, the solution lies in severing the ties between the lobbyist's money and the election results--or perception thereof.

Tiered Democratic Governance really has no such connection. Politicians are elected based on their local reputation. No amount of money can change.

TDG politicians can still interact with lobbysist. But there's not much lobbyists can do to enhance their electoral success.

In another angle, there will be more citizens in government in the TDG (the lowest tier will be voluntary). So there would be more access points for a citizen to interact with someone in government--and their local rep would only be a few doors away!

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On another note, I'm just about finished an essay on "The Shock Dortrine". It should be up in a couple of days.