The citizen lobby

Day-to-day politics are largely driven by economic lobbies in the interest of what Habermas calls their „generalised particularism,“ the threat to take jobs and tax revenues elsewhere. Citizens’ influence over politicians is twofold: they are asked for their input in elections, referenda, online consultations and surveys, and citizens can initiate issues where they see political action needed. Yet these „participative forces“ regularly fail to reach the ears of elected politicians as effectively as those of well-funded corporate lobbies. A more powerful model would therefore organise the efforts of the electorate in a way that both generates those reasoned arguments and delivers them to the elected politicians in a manner they can neither refuse nor ignore. This is what the Citizen Lobby intends to do.