Lobbying as a part of public relations has often come under fire for creating unequal power equations by allowing those that can afford it to swing public policy in their favor. Take movies, for example, where lobbyists are often portrayed as money-crabbing, unscrupulous opportunists.
Well, I don’t agree to this view. lobbying is not as one-sided as it may seem to some. As part of my research for an earlier assignment, I read Maloney’s Rethinking Public Relations, which I think is one of the best views on lobbying as part of PR. As shown in the book, not only big businesses, but activists use lobbying to influence public policy. It is an integral part of liberal democracy. Even governments use it to achieve their goals, especially in their foreign affairs as this usually involves catering to a wider audience including other governments and regulators like United Nations and the World Bank.
Lobbying is thus a crucial, and in fact an inevitable, part of pluralist democracy. The critics of lobbying are yet to provide an alternative for lobbying to put forth multiple perspectives in the arena of public affairs.
Lobbying is more like a double-edged sword. it can cut both ways. how it works depends on who uses it. and it isn’t just a right hand or a left hand that matters, but the brains and more accurately the motive behind the case for lobbying. indeed there are several powerful lobbies that have worked to gain something for themselves even if it harms another, the tobacco/cigarette manufacturers lobbyists. and yet, there are some who genuinely use the power of lobbying believing it will do good. who uses it, how it is used, and for what it is used defines the character of lobbying.
By: Innamma on March 12, 2008
at 9:36 am