Question

what are the strongest arguments for the proposition that corporations should have influence on how public policy is formulated?

• Given that position, how can corporations exercise political control over policy making without infringing on public interests? What role corporations can be expected to play? Is there a role for the government?
• Should foreign corporations be able to exercise influence over US policy?
• If corporations are to exercise control over policy making in general, are there any areas of policy that corporations should not be able to influence?

Answer 1

Corporations as part of core business community play a very important role in the development of the nation. The stakes of corporate in development of the nation are very high, however, there are few corporates who have taken the long term approach and participation in policy development. Most of the corporates believe in their government relation tactics for short term gain which is mainly pertaining to self-interest. However, in order to improve the public infrastructure, employment generation, ease of doing business the corporates should have an influence on the formulation of the policy. The political control which a corporate need to play has to be related to business-related activities which leads to development and creates a suitable environment for business and promote the best trade practices. Without infringing on the public interest are the corporates should act as an advisory for policy formulation which has got implications on the business. The role of government should be to facilitate the inputs from corporates and let the corporates get involved in a faithful implementation of the policy.

In my view, foreign corporations should not be given an opportunity to influence the US policy, but yes our policy should be strong enough to promote fair competition and attract investment opportunities. Moreover, if corporates are givne the power to influence the policy formulation, still there is an area where the corporations should not be allowed to excercise any power is on the policy related to the control of business activity. Rules and regulations to control the business conduct should be desigend, implemented and monitored by government only.