Right to petition: the foundation of legitimate lobbying

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Lobbying , one of the pillars of institutional and governmental relations, is nothing more than influencing the formulation of public policies, through direct requests to the policymakers. These public agents can be from the Legislative branch, i.e. a parliamentarian, or from the Executive branch, from a minister to a civil servant who is implementing a public policy on the front line.


This simple concept of lobbying can be greatly expanded or reduced, but at its core is the possibility of presenting a demand, a request, to a public agent. In democracies, as we know, this public agent will always be a representative of the will of the people. The holder of power, in fact, will always be the People.


Therefore, nothing would make sense if these actors could not be china mobile database reached by the People who delegate them to power. Therefore, in democracies, the right to petition is enshrined as one of the pillars for their existence and maintenance.


The right to petition began to materialize in the legal system as early as the English Magna Carta of 1215, considered the first Constitution in history. In the United States Constitution, the First Amendment determines the right to petition the government as a fundamental clause of the Bill of Rights , along with freedom of speech and the right of assembly.


In the early days of American democracy, petitions, like the petitions we are all familiar with, were a fundamental tool for exercising rights, even for people who did not have the right to vote. Petitions were the origin of many of the public policies that ended up being adopted by the Legislature, as historian Tiffany Middleton has reported .


The types of petition
In modern times, we can classify petitions into four basic types. These classifications were adapted from a model proposed by the American Bar Association :


Political Petitions — have a specific form and follow a set of rules determined by law or the Constitution. A Brazilian example can be considered that of petitions for the creation of political parties, which require a minimum support of 0.5% of voters not affiliated with any political party. This group of voters must represent at least 0.1% of 1/3 or more of the states.