Lobbying in the United States and European Union: A Comparison of Energy Lobbying

This dissertation is dedicated to comparing systematical and cultural lobbying differences in the energy industry in the United States and European Union. The paper aims to cover lobbying as a whole from different perspectives and entail the importance of it in the given political systems. The first chapter is going to cover characteristics and types of lobbying in order to identify what are the different formations, how and when certain techniques come into play, why those methods are used and how they are applied. The first chapter also covers the history of lobbying in the United States as this is accepted to be the birthplace of modern lobbying that the dissertation seeks to make use out of. The second chapter is dedicated to the legal framework each chosen geography enforces and the comparison that reveals differences and similarities between them. Key differences between the approaches on lobbying regulations are to emerge in this section of the dissertation as there is detailed research conducted in both legal systems. Finally, the third chapter is dedicated to a case study of the leading tech firm Alphabet Inc., also known as Google. In the case study the areas that are going to be covered are historical as well as current involvement in the energy, energy lobbying and lobbying industries followed by their activities on each geography. Depending on the types of regulations the subject is to come across, the actions are going to be evaluated accordingly, revealing crucial information on the strategies, techniques, and spending, if that can be obtained.