Lobbyistes et législation sur le lobbyisme : que nous apprend la récente expérience québécoise?

In a context where an increasing number of governments, in both Europe and North America, are planning to tighten the lobbying rules, the authors focus on the reactions of Quebec lobbyists to the Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Act, which was enacted in Quebec in 2002. Based on an examination of close to thirty interviews conducted one year after the enactment of the act, as well as the study of an important corpus of documents, their analysis indicates that the terms of the act, specifically those with reference to the registration in the Registry of Lobbyists, create bureaucratic red tape that makes enforcement of the law unlikely. It is also clear that the act, the main purpose of which is to build the public's trust in those who hold public office and the democratic institutions in which they work, will have presumably very little influence over the public's perception of the integrity of the players in the political sphere, including lobbyists. Furthermore, it would seem that simplifying the registry process, as well as broadening the scope of the legislation's applicability (specifically to include non-profit organizations), would have the effect of increasing the public's level of confidence in the democratic institutions and the players associated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]