Bribery vs. Lobbying: What's the Difference?

Bribery vs. Lobbying: An Overview

Bribery and lobbying are often conjoined in the public mind: Critics of lobbying suggest that it's bribery in a suit. While both seek a favorable outcome, the two remain distinct practices. Bribery is considered an effort to buy power; paying to guarantee a certain result; lobbying is considered an effort to influence power, often by offering contributions.

One key difference is that bribery is considered illegal, while lobbying is not.

Lobbying

Lobbyists try to shape laws, legislation, and public policy to the benefit of the group or entity that employs them. Their campaigns (which are legal) can sometimes be public ones (or fed to the media to influence the public), but they more typically target politicians, elected officials, legislators, and government agency employees; the movers and shakers on Capitol Hill and in state capitals too.

Lobbyists—the term referring to both individuals and organizations—have existed as long as governments; they traditionally have been considered "information givers," a valuable source of facts and data, though admittedly in support of their cause or industry. Lobbyists systematically build up support for their causes, over years and decades. Often, they fund a study, survey, or research that might sway a politician's opinion or their constituency's opinion.

More often, though, they act more directly—by giving money. Increasingly, lobbyists are ensuring contributions are made from the grassroots up to influence decision-makers at all stages. These contributions aren't directly paid to any official or lawmaker. But they might go to that person's election or re-election campaign—purchase advertising, finance a fundraiser—or to a politician's favorite cause, charity, hometown, or state project.

Among lobbyists, there's a tacit understanding, if not an outright quid pro quo: We supported you and your interests; in return, you support us and ours—by voting for (or against) this bill, by funding that subsidy, by extending this exemption, or by loosening that regulation.

But if they have existed forever, why are lobbyists reaping such scorn of late? It's partly due to their higher profile. In the past, they tended to operate quietly, behind the scenes, and away from the public eye. In the last few decades, however, they have become bigger and bolder, operating quite openly as a profession. (In Washington D.C., "K Street" is shorthand for the lobbying field, since so many are centered there, the way "Wall Street" in NYC symbolizes the finance industry). Not a month goes by without the public announcement of some former politician joining a lobbying firm, leveraging their knowledge of how the government machine works.

How Lobbyists Work

For example, cigar lobbyists have campaigned for cigars not to be grouped with cigarettes. They lobbied for years to avoid government scrutiny and to propagate an image that cigars were not harmful, when in fact cigars are as dangerous as cigarettes.

Or take the financial sector. Securities and investment firms spent $104 million in 2020. This amount is in line with prior years. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, 2010 and 2011, this sector was spending $103 million annually. Most of this money was spent to ensure that the government did not regulate the hedge fund industry.

The impact of lobbying is massive. It affects policy by influencing policymakers and therefore citizens, rather than just individuals. Whether made directly by entities or through professional lobbying firms, the contributions—this "special interest money" as it's imaginatively known—lead the act of lobbying to be associated with bribery.

Bribery

In contrast, a bribe usually occurs on an individual level. And it is anything but public. A bribe giver usually gives an offer of money "under the table" in order to subvert standard processes. This could be paying a tax officer to clear reports with under-reported revenue or sending goods without an invoice.

The bribe may be in the form of a donation or favor in kind. A company's purchase manager may award an order to a supplier in return for undue favor in the form of money, against his company's policy of awarding orders based on criteria of quality and price. Public officers are offered bribes to enable evasion of taxes and the corresponding liabilities at an individual or company level.

However it's done, a bribe—along with its cousin, the kickback—results in an unfair advantage for the bribe giver. Bribes may seem like small amounts compared to lobbying contributions, but therein lies the problem: They often cannot be accounted for.

Bribery is the first step of subversion of the economic system. Slowly but steadily, a corrupt, parallel system is formed. It creates inefficiencies and obstacles in the short term; over time, it erodes the economic foundation of the country, hurting the most vulnerable members of the society and filling the middle class with a sense of hopelessness and cynicism.

Real-World Example of Corporate Bribery

In 2020, European airplane manufacturer, Airbus, agreed to pay $4 billion in fines over accusations of bribery and corruption that dated back 15 years. The company reached a plea bargain with prosecutors in Britain, France, and the United Kingdom.

The scandal involved using third-party business agents to bribe government officials and airline executives, as well as resolving Airbus's violation of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

Special Considerations

Bribery seems to have no morally redeeming features at all: It is a direct purchase of favor or advantage. Lobbying, on the other hand, is also used by civil rights and environmental support groups in their battles against commercial and for-profit interests. In that sense, lobbying becomes a critical and important tool in influencing public policy and evening the scales between different groups.

But all too often, the border where lobbying's influence ends, and outright bribery begins, can be hard to fathom.