&gt; A smaller role for government, in particular a reduction in policies that try to pick winners and losers explicitly (e.g. taxes or fees that favor particular companies or industries), could reduce the incentive to influence the creation of &quot;targeted&quot; legislation.<p>Exactly. Companies look at the dollars they spend and ask themselves, how can I get the best return on spending this dollar? As government regulations increasingly influence their bottom line, companies will increasingly conclude that spending money influencing regulations is a good use of their money. Hence, more lobbying.