EU has done really well on passing big laws such as GDPR in the recent years, while the US can’t even seem to decide whether to fund their own government. Why do you think Europe is doing better than the US? One would think that since EU is more diverse it would be harder to find common ground. And there were examples of that during the Greece debt crisis. But not anymore, it seems.
“yet”.
I feel like we’re just one or two decades behind on … everything bad in the US.
I think it is exactly the other way around. Companies are well-organized on the global level and can influence Brussels and national EU governments. See the latest Qatar scandal or the often cited cucumber regulations. However, in Europe, the social market orientation results in majorities favoring more government control. In contrast, the US often rejects such policies as “communism”.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that Lobbying isn’t that big in Europe and several states have laws actively against the practice. Sure, corrupt politicians still exists, but they are more easily exposed under anti-corruption laws. Unlike in the USA where it’s practically legalized bribery.
Why are there 25k lobbyists in Brussels then?
The word you are looking for is corruption. It always gets mixed up with lobbying. Lobbying is not inherently bad. It is good practice to ask the people a law applies to, if the law is feasible. It helps to avoid passing laws, that are completely impracticable and destroy a whole sector of economy in the worst case.
