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The so-called revolving door between government and the lobbying profession presents a conundrum in American politics: lobbyists play a critical and legitimate role in the policy process, yet the advantages that come with having worked inside the halls of power gives the interests they represent undue influence.
There are two competing normative views of revolving door lobbying. Interest groups supply important information and subject-matter expertise to government so that it can do its job (Bauer et al , 1963; Esterling, 2004; Hall and Deardorff, 2006). Interest groups are normatively justified if citizens are equally represented and their interests are faithfully communicated in a way that minimizes rent-seeking and maximizes deliberation (Mansbridge, 1992). Consequently - defenders of the revolving door point out - lobbyists with valuable policy subject-matter expertise that comes with government experience are better suited to supply the information that policymakers need to make well-reasoned decisions.
Critics respond that it is not so much the policy expertise, but rather lobbyists' personal connections and insider knowledge that make them valuable. When organized interests are heard solely because they hire those with the right connections - not because they have the best ideas - the democratic process suffers. Having the right person return your call or understanding how things really get done is not the normative equivalent to supplying critical information subsidies.
Moreover, pundits and watchdogs condemn the revolving door because they see lobbyists lining their own pockets in pursuit of particularized benefits rather than enhancing the quality of policy debates. Legal scholar Larry Lessig goes so far as to declare revolving door lobbying to be evidence of an institutionally corrupt gift economy, where a policy favor granted today is presumed to be rewarded with a lucrative job on K Street tomorrow (2011). This theme is familiar, as in a recent Washington Post editorial: 'Gone ... are the days when members of Congress scrupled to become lobbyists upon their departure from office. Now, representatives and senators spin like dervishes through the revolving door' (Washington Post Editorial Board, 2012).
For example, critics point to Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) - a member of the congressional subcommittee responsible for funding rural development projects - who shocked her colleagues just 9 days after decisively winning reelection to a tenth...