#16 How shady lobbying gained power - with Michael Bang Petersen

If you want to see the power that is exercised in the hidden corners of politics on a daily basis, you just have to go to Folkemødet on Bornholm. Both host Sigge Winther and this week's guest Michael Bang Petersen have experienced this.

"That's where you get a sense of the issue, because they come out with their tents and you can see how many resources they basically have," says Bang Petersen about the lobby organizations he is focusing on in his work with 'Magtudredningen 2.0'.

The large-scale research project will examine how power in Denmark is distributed and how it has shifted. So far, three books have been published in a series that is expected to include 45.

And one of the preliminary conclusions is that Denmark is more of a lobby country than it was just twenty years ago.

 Very powerful Novo Nordisk

In addition to uncovering where power is located, the Power Survey also looks at how it actually works. Here it is interesting to look at the country's largest companies and see how they exercise their power.

For example, Novo Nordisk:

"You can see that the municipality has special meetings with Novo to hear how things are going, but it's not like Novo can pick up the phone and tell the Prime Minister what to do," says Michael Bang Petersen and continues:

"Power is complex and one of the special things about being very powerful is that you don't actually have to exercise that power because others automatically think of the company's welfare."

In this week's Compass, you can hear much more about hidden power and where it hides.