| Abstract [eng] |
Various Lithuanian researchers agree that the Law on Lobbying Activities in Lithuania were developed in order to meet the different standards and requirements required by international organizations. International organizations such as European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, played crucial role in influencing change of the formation of the Law of Lobbying Activities throughout different stages of Lithuania’s development Research evidence shows that the Lithuanian Law on lobbying activities were developed on the basis of the practices formed by other foreign countries, and not on the need arising within the country. For this reason, the Law on lobbying activities remained rather ineffective for a very long time. In order to look at the different stages of the formation of the Law on lobbying activities in Lithuania and the large number of possible factors the study will be based on the process tracing method. This method will also be supported by various publicly available documents. The following independent variables are raised to achieve the objectives of the study: a) corruption scandals involving business interest groups, government officials and politicians evolve, b) media attention and the types as well as level of escalating scandals. Based on seventeen corruption scandals that were identified in Lithuania between the period of 2004 and 2020 and the material analysed during the research it can be seen that due to constantly escalating corruption scandals caused by businesses, the lobbying phenomenon in Lithuania maintained a negative image in the past. It can be seen that lobbying is compared with activities such as corruption, bribery and influencing trade and non-transparent access to the decision-makers at the time. The research also revealed that the most popular scandals had the greatest impact to the development of Law on lobbying activities. It can also be seen that the change has been driven by the number of public officials and public institutions who were found to have colleagues involved in corruption scandals. |
