Public Affairs and Lobbying

In order to understand the relationship between public relations, public affairs and lobbying, we need to look at definitions of terms. I have already tried to find a proper definition for public relations at the beginning of this chapter. Public affairs is a term slightly more ambiguous. One definition says that:

Public affairs is concerned with those relationships which are involved in the development of public policy, legislation and regulation, which may affect organizations, their interests and operations.

(White, quoted in Black 1995:31)

In simple terms, a public affairs specialist will usually be on the lookout for issues which are likely to affect the organization in the future, such as possible new regulations, or consumer trends; and will tend to be involved in lobbying. The ambiguity arises when the term is used interchangeably with public relations. An organization whose public relations activities are largely tied up with public policy issues may refer to these activities as “public affairs” rather than “public relations”, because of the obvious link with “affairs of state”.

The definition of public affairs which takes a broader view of their function is:

“Public affairs is a specialist area of practice within public relations. It is concerned with those relationships which are involved in the development of public policy, legislation and regulation which may affect organizations, their interests and operations. One, but only one of these “concerns” of public affairs as set out in this definition is legislation and this brings us to a definition of lobbying”. (Black 1995:31)

One of the techniques used most commonly in carrying out management campaigns is lobbying. Kotler (Black 1995:31) defines lobbying thus: “Lobbying involves dealing with legislators and government officials to promote or defeat legislation or regulation ”. Therefore lobbying is clearly a specialized subset of public affairs but it cannot and should be not used as a synonym for public affairs.

Organizations have increasingly used lobbying techniques to present their case to government and groups of stakeholders. Lobbying can be either defensive, designed to abolish or amend an existing law, or offensive, aimed at pushing the authorities to create a law. An example of offensive lobbying was the successful Snowdrop Campaign by parents of children killed at Dunblane, which quickly forced a change in the regulations on private guns.

In the USA lobbying, if not considered an altogether noble profession, is at least viewed as a legitimate and respectable activity and is a huge industry. The gun lobby and private health care interests, to name but two, are groups that in their respective ways have managed to stop presidential actions over many years to regulate ownership of firearms and health services.

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