Lobbying

10 Key excerpts on "Lobbying"

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  PR- A Persuasive Industry?

  Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media

  • T. Morris, S. Goldsworthy(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  C HAPTER 12 Lobbying, public affairs, politics, and government PR Paying for influence Lobbyists are important creatures of our age. Their activities are seldom long out of the news in the United States and the United Kingdom, and scandals involving Lobbying infect most democracies from time to time. The word is often used in the same breath as PR, so there is plenty of guilt by association. As with PR, and as the title of this section reveals, this has led to some awkwardness about what to call the “Lobbying.” Although it may be the term in general use by lay- people, and the one, crucially, that is used in the media, in the United Kingdom practitioners seldom call themselves lobbyists. Many opt for “public affairs,” which is often the term preferred by the big inter- national consultancies, although those who work in the not-for-profit sector tend to dodge all these terms (just as they avoid calling what they do PR) and lump their activities together as campaigning. Lobbying (or public affairs) may be defined as any activity designed to influence the actions of those who exercise the powers of government. This includes not just national governments, but all places where political power is located and wherever decisions are made on laws and regulations and their implementation. Beyond national legislatures Lobbying embraces central government minis- tries, agencies, and a growing army of regulators. It includes regional and local tiers of government, but it also covers an ever-spreading array of international organizations, operating either globally – for example the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the 145 146 PR – A Persuasive Industry? World Trade Organization – or in different parts of the world – for example ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Area), the European Union, and the African Union.

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  Lobbying in Europe

  Public Affairs and the Lobbying Industry in 28 EU Countries

  • Alberto Bitonti, Phil Harris, Alberto Bitonti, Phil Harris(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Therefore, in the framework of political science, Lobbying (in the various general forms it can take) refers to the activity of interest groups (or THE ROLE OF Lobbying IN MODERN DEMOCRACY: A THEORETICAL... 20 lobbies 1 ), trying to influence the government and to affect public decisions. As a consequence, political science focuses on the phenomenological description of interest groups, tries to classify them, sees which factors have an impact on their success or failure, studies their strategies, observes how they actually relate with public decision makers, or how different regulatory environments or political and institutional conditions affect this relationship. As said before, here we are not discussing whether Lobbying is good or bad, but analysing how it works, just assuming that Lobbying is a political fact, taking place anyway, whichever our thinking about it is, in demo- cratic as in non-democratic regimes. Deciding to focus our view on democratic regimes, we study the types of relationships of various interest groups with various institutions of modern democratic systems, such as legislative assemblies, executive branches, but also independent authorities, agencies, different Public Administration offices and of course supranational or intergovernmental bodies such as the EU Commission, the EU Council or the United Nations General Assembly. These studies have come in years to various diagnoses about the weight of specific actors or about the balance of power in a political environment, resulting in very different conclusions about the characteristics of mod- ern democracy and its relationship with interest groups. Elitism, plural- ism, neo-corporatism, neo-pluralism or the policy networks theory are all examples of such diagnoses.

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  Groups, Interests, and U.S. Public Policy

  • William P. Browne(Author)
  • 1998(Publication Date)
  • Georgetown University Press

    (Publisher)

  The Meaning of Lobbying A great deal of attention has been given so far to understanding the organization of groups and other political interests. Consider-able mention has been made of their Lobbying, pressure, advo-cacy, or just the plain working of policymakers. However, what are interest representatives doing as actual tasks when they pres-sure government? Or, as British lobbyist Charles Miller put it, what are the precise techniques of advocacy? 1 Part of the answer can be found in a description by Jeffrey Birnbaum of a large Lobbying firm. Hill and Knowlton, while under Robert Gray's care, housed people who contacted policymakers as well as a varied assortment of researchers, economists, political analysts, publicists, graphic artists, speechwriters, and managers of campaign contributions. 2 There was even an instructor who coached clients and staff on press interviews. Part of Hill and Knowlton's facilities included a broadcast studio, one that not only created electronic media spots but also broadcast them to commer-cial radio and TV stations to use as they wished. Quite literally, Hill and Knowlton made news. Lobbying involves a lot, as this example suggests. Depending on the job, lobbyists may do a lot as well. Their techniques are many. This certainly seems a big change, at least at first glance, from the early days of American government when lobbyists were named for their simple penchant for hanging out in congressional lobbies—the halls—waiting to corral a passing legislator. 3 Modern Lobbying involves far more. 4 In reality, it always did—more than most people realize. Its techniques include not only the contacts made to advocate issues, and the research needed to make any 62 3 The Meaning of Lobbying 63 deal, there's also a great amount of what might best be called lob-bying foreplay. Tommy Boggs has been a master of that. He main-tained a house on the Chesapeake where policymakers went to party, hunt, and sometimes fish.

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  North American Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations

  Other Voices

  • Tom Watson(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  97 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 T. Watson (ed.), North American Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations, National Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations, DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-95044-7_8 CHAPTER 8 Abstract This chapter provides a mosaic telling the story of seminal events in the history of US political Lobbying. Lobbying is defined here as an individual, group, organization or corporation that seeks to directly or indirectly influence the voting of government officials. It is also the act of educating a legislator on an issue related to the interests of lobbyists and/ or the organization for which they work. It begins with an example of the “citizen lobbyist” and then offers a synopsis of principles and practices of lobbyists in Washington, DC. Next it provides an overview of lobby- ing’s deep history; included are four “periods” illustrating Lobbying’s foci. Reflections on the Lobbying as the “third house” come next, followed by discussion of costs and benefits of “corporate Lobbying.” The chapter Political Communications and Lobbying in the United States Edward J. Downes, Dustin W. Supa, and Esther Austin E.J. Downes () College of Communications, Boston University, 640 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215-2422, USA e-mail: [email protected] D.W. Supa College of Communication, Boston University, 640 Commonweath Avenue, Boston, MA 2215, USA E. Austin Boston University widens its focus with commentary on the current history of international lobbyists. It concludes discussing Lobbying in today’s new/social media environment. Readers will have a kaleidoscopic overview of the many pieces that combine to form the history of political Lobbying and its ethi- cal challenges. Keywords Influence • Legislation • Lobbying • Unions “CITIZEN LOBBYISTS” Each 22 January since 1974 a massive assembly of citizens gather on the Mall in Washington, DC and march up Capitol Hill to the US Supreme Court.

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  Army Relations with Congress

  Thick Armor, Dull Sword, Slow Horse

  • Stephen K. Scroggs(Author)
  • 2000(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  Indeed some state statutes limit the definition of lob- bying to attempts to exert improper influence. 4 No one is sure where this imprecise term originated, but it likely evolved from a derogatory reference to individuals who waited in the lobby of the Cap- itol building to ambush passing legislators to advocate a particular position on pending legislation. 5 Jeffrey M. Berry, in his excellent work on interest groups, defines Lobbying as "any legal means used to try to influence government." 6 Lester Milbrath defines Lobbying as ' 'the stimulation and transmission of a com- munication, by someone other than a citizen acting on his own behalf, directed to a governmental decisionmaker with the hope of influencing his decision." 7 Both are close to defining Lobbying-type activities responsibly undertaken by public agencies; however, neither definition succeeds in differentiating these activities from private Washington Lobbying efforts. Even private Washington lobbyists try to avoid this label because of the stigma associated with their profession. 8 Because of the stigma of applying the "L" word to LL activity, the term "liaise" rather than "lobby" is used in this book to discuss military service LL activity. Communicating directly to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an agency and Congress is liaising activity. Private Washington lobbyists attempt to influence, urge, or press Members of Congress or congressional staffers on issues through a variety of means, on behalf of a third party. Additionally, the individual lobbyist and senior leadership in the company represented can benefit financially from influencing that Member or staffer. In contrast, LL officers and their senior leadership receive no personal monetary gain for their activities.

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  Brussels Versus the Beltway

  Advocacy in the United States and the European Union

  • Christine Mahoney(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Georgetown University Press

    (Publisher)

  183 THE AIM OF Lobbying is to influence public policy; thus it is natural as po-litical scientists we would seek to study lobbyists’ ability to achieve influence. As natural as it may seem, however, group scholars have not by and large studied Lobbying influence. Instead they have tended to avoid it, finding it troubling to quantitatively measure the concept. In both the United States and the European Union scholars have focused on a whole host of Lobbying-related phenomena—formation, organization, access, activity—but not influence. This is especially ironic because the question of influence seems to be the first thing that comes to mind when anyone considers Lobbying in a transatlantic comparison: in which system are interest groups more influential? There have been a number of reviews detailing the reasons why scholars have avoided the concept of interest group influence (Baumgartner and Leech 1998; De Bièvre and Dür 2007; Dür 2005). The range of factors that determine policy outcomes is vast and how they interact is complex, changing, and fluid (Kingdon 1995). Interest groups are only one element in the political mix of politicians, the public, and exogenous shocks. For all intents and purposes, it is impossible to determine whether an individual interest group or advocate was the deciding factor in a policy outcome. I argue that analyzing Lobbying success—whether advocates achieve their goals or not at the conclusion of a policy debate—can help us move toward understanding Lobbying influence. IDENTIFYING INFLUENCE Many system-level or macro factors play a role in the power of societal actors vis-à-vis governments, such as the structure of international negotiations, the freedom of markets, and the existence of war (De Bièvre and Dür 2007).

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  Public Affairs in Practice

  A Practical Guide to Lobbying

  • Stuart Thomson, Steve John(Authors)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • Kogan Page

    (Publisher)

  The art of Lobbying 55 Brad Staples, Chairman, APCO Europe The face of the EU has changed markedly in the past ten years – successive enlargements, more legislative powers at the EU level and a more open and transparent decision-making process. Successful Lobbying in the EU is increasingly about understanding and knowing how to capitalize on these changes. Multi-country Lobbying strategies campaigns are often essential to effecting real legislative change. These need to build on Brussels and member state insight, understanding and sensitivity to local politics, interests and behaviour. Success also depends on building sustained relationships and dialogue with Brussels officials and politicians over the five-year institutional cycle and the ability to come armed with solutions for policymakers rather than a catalogue of problems. GLOBAL INSTITUTIONS An increasing emphasis is being placed on the role of global institutions. Lobbying these institutions remains a somewhat under-explored avenue except for the very largest, usually multinational, companies. As problems, such as trade, environmental protection or the ‘norms’ of business behaviour require increasingly global attention, the role of these bodies can only increase. The World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) will often interact directly with organizations and will work with the private sector on the implementation of their programmes. 13 Good relationships with these bodies take time to build and the way that your profile is enhanced will depend on their programmes and the role you want to play. In a similar way to working with individual states it is important to work with officials and those who head up your sector. If you are putting a policy argument to them the same rules apply about its accuracy and resonance, understanding the policymaking process and ensuring that it is well supported.

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  Introduction to International Economics

  • Henk Jager, Catrinus Jepma(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  This seems at odds with the assumption of an omniscient government whose objective is to maximize national welfare. What is proposed here is a political-economy model in which the government consists of various individuals such as politicians, bureaucrats, and offi-cials, who are all interested in pursuing their own objectives in policy-making. This idea recently encouraged the development of new perspectives regarding trade policy theories, by including the behaviour of the government as an explanatory factor in trade models. 9.2 The practice of Lobbying: a case study Case study 9.1 offers an example of some of the problems that can arise in Lobbying an international organization such as the EU. 168 Introduction to International Economics Case study 9.1 ‘Getting through to Brussels’ Over the last two decades, and particularly since the introduction of the internal market in the EU, the Lobbying of EU institutions has become a rapidly growing industry. At the time of writing there are some 15,000 lobbyists in Brussels who seek to sway the leg-islative procedure of the EU in favour of different interest groups. Thus a great deal of time is spent on influencing new legislation, antitrust measures, and merger enquiries. However, according to a senior official at the Commission, 90 per cent of Lobbying is ineffective. What makes a lobby successful? Etienne Davignon, a former EU Commissioner, states that Lobbying in Brussels cannot be compared with what happens at the national level. However, EU officials are often concerned about losing contact with the outside world, so they are much more open to outside contact than most national officials and administrators. It is important for lobbyists to understand how to exploit this openness. The first thing is to ‘get through’ to the European authorities – by being received and heard. Once inside, lobbyists can make the long journey to Brussels productive by following some of the ground rules outlined below.

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  Interest Groups and Lobbying

  Pursuing Political Interests in America

  • Thomas T. Holyoke(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Lobbyists are representatives of mobilized interests. That is what they are paid to do, just as lawyers are paid to represent clients even if they know those clients are guilty of crimes. Lobbyists also do not make final decisions on public policy; they articulate  conclusion: representation in the interest group age and press the desires of specific groups. In our system of government, law-makers, elected or appointed, are supposed to consider the public interest as they make final decisions. The job lobbyists and the interest groups they work for are expected to do, and do with integrity, is to honestly and aggressively pursue the interests of the citizens they represent. Notes 1. Technically, the original LDA required reports to be filed semiannually, not quarterly. It was changed to a quarter system in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. 2. This has also created a small cottage industry of Lobbying compliance manu-als, such as the one from Lobbyists.info, which, among other things, explains how to throw a legal holiday party. 3. This is not available online, but I have a copy of it and will make it available on request. 4. See “Code of Ethics,” American League of Lobbyists, November 2010, http://www.alldc.org/ethicscode.cfm. 5. This is what I was told by the league’s representative. 285 glossary Accommodationist PAC —Political action committees that are not overly ideolog-ical or partisan in their contributing strategies. They tend to contribute to sup-plement the broader Lobbying strategies of their affi liate interest group’s lobbyist, giving to members of Congress with whom that lobbyist has built long-term relationships. Thus they tend to give nearly all of their contributions to incum-bent candidates and worry less about which party controls Congress or the White House.

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  The Persuaders

  When Lobbyists Matter

  • S. John(Author)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  One reason for believing effec- tive Lobbying is difficult to measure is that lobbyists may concentrate on those who are already convinced. 90 However, more recent research has challenged this conclusion by finding that lobbyists target a range of players, including friendly and unfriendly legislators. 91 Access may be a key objective, but it is rarely the ultimate goal of the lobbyist. Access is the ‘facilitating intermediate objective’ of lobbyists. 92 Access ‘structures the success or failure of the lobbyist, all of which come[s] after the access is achieved’. 93 Lobbyists practise low-cost polit- ical actions such as involvement in day-to-day discussions, responding to consultation, commissioning research and meeting government. Hansen suggests that lobbyists and their clients can gain access if they have a competitive advantage over rivals in helping the re-election of politicians, and if the issue is likely to recur. 94 An important resource available to groups is their degree of accept- ance by government, and whether this acceptance allows for an infor- mal and friendly relationship. ‘[G]roups which do not gain legitimacy remain outside the policy-making process and hence are “effectively” mute.’ 95 It may be that if access to policy communities is restricted, groups will adopt a high-profile campaign strategy. They will certainly be forced to pursue a multi-faceted approach. Lobbyists provide techni- cal guidance about the most effective manner in which to approach decision-makers. Even for groups with good relations with government, a multi-faceted approach is more likely to be effective. Micro-level Following the discussion of networks, it is important to recognise the significance of different layers, spheres, individuals and rules, and their impact on policy outcomes. Institutions, organisations, rules and procedures have profound effects on lobbyists and provide a partial 64 The Persuaders

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