Lobbying in Washington, London and Brussels: The Persuasive Communication of Political Issues

Description

This book examines the activities of lobbyists in the three largest global lobbying markets Washington, London and Brussels and places those activities in the context of the political, cultural and institutional environments within which lobbying is undertaken in those locations. Its fundamental premise is that institutions and political frameworks make a great deal of difference to which effective lobbyists will approach their work. Based on interviews with 60 lobbyists in those cities, the book seeks to describe the range of activities which they undertake from monitoring to research, grass roots efforts to coalition building, atmosphere setting to direct advocacy. In the first section of this book, these activities are analysed and the lobbyists views explained, in the light of current academic and popular literature. The second section contains detailed transcripts of interviews with 16 of the lobbyists, in which they speak at length and in in their own words. One of the aims of this work is to put lobbyists firmly at the heart of research into lobbying too often, academic works on lobbyists treat lobbyists experiences and expertise as peripheral to the mathematical modeling of their activities. Designed with academic researchers in mind, the book also contains a wealth of insights from lobbyists from which other practitioners in the three locations can draw upon.