2016 SCORE CARD ON THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF LOBBYING AND LOBBYISTS

Author: Dr. Craig S. Fleisher (Edited by AALEP)

Positive (Driving Forces)

• Powerful voices of  Member States societies being heard
• Recognition by public of high influence
• Some practice leaders are speaking out publicly
• The number of individuals lobbying at EU level is large
• Lobbyists have more, better tools than ever to target, disseminate their messages
• High salaries for the best lobbyists
• High demand for proven practitioners
• Occasional members of strategic decision/TMT table
• New journals dedicated to lobbying have risen since Y2K
• New practices and methods are being developed
• Increased number of practitioner/trade books, white papers
• Growth in lobbying dedicated websites
• Recognition by lobbyists of need to learn adjacencies (psychology, sociology, info systems, data science etc.
• Many lobbyists have advanced degrees
• Some fields holding cross-over meetings w/ (SM & IT, in particular)
• Groups rising to meet needs for professionalization
• Some groups growing strong on ethics, self-regulation

Adversed (Impeding Forces)

• Few powerful voices consistently heard at EU level.
• General public stills misunderstands, viewing lobbyists as corrupt or captured by selfish interests.
• ‘Bad’ lobbyists scandals get ample media attention
• Public sees lobbyists as unethical, dishonest
• Perceived unlevelling influence of money
• No/minimal entry barriers
• Few standard entry points
• Few formal career paths or ladders inside organizations
• Nowhere close to critical mass
• The ethics of some of the new methods and practices need scrutiny
• (Relatively) few researchers or research centres
• Little global/cross-national knowledge fertilization
• Other fields often don’t recognize info and knowledge needs of lobbyists
• Some hanging lobbying shingles lack high school diploma
• Lobbyists often don’t have dedicated ways to monitor adjacent developments
• Checkered history of national level associations
• Few have been self-regulating, monitor compliance w/codes, ethics or standards
• Public sees lobbyists as dishonest, unethical. 

What needs to happen next?

• Convene task force on the 'public benefit' of lobbying
• Create, communicate cases of lobbying creating high net value
• Develop competitions (like essay contests) whereby the public can extol its importance
• Salary surveys
• Develop moel job descriptions at different levels of experience
• Minimum required entry standards
• Body of knowledge needs development consensus
• Building of model curriculums
• Design competence assessments and develop standards
• Create shared meetings/websites/SM groups
• Develop communication (in person meetings, webinars etc.) and news sharing mechanisms
• Empower oversight, governance group to represent all.
• Code of conduct performance standards and self-regulating body.

Minimum Standards Lobbyists must meet or exceed

1. Routinely recognize, understand and meet their obligations to their clients/employers, stakeholders, and especially those decision makers in the public policy institutions where they practice.
2. Develop, maintain and widely communicate an ethics codes or standards of ethical practice for its members to adhere. Such standards explain the professional’s obligations with others and the responsibilities inherent in these relationships.
3. Empower those representing the profession, i.e., individuals acting in its governance, in using the codes of ethics or practice as adjudicatory guidelines for standards of acceptable conduct. In this manner, any “bad apples” can be formally removed from the profession and its practice. Obviously, groups that do not self-police their members’ activities will thereby either diminish themselves in the publics’ view of the occupation or abdicate their governance to others outside the occupation. These are typically government groups/agents who will be asked or compelled by the public-at-large, particularly when it perceives harm being done to them in order to rein in these unruly practitioners and practices.
4. Meet formalized standards or preparation and competencies, like holding a particular degree showing evidence of mastering agreed-upon concepts and principles of the practice, passing an “entry” exam, or gaining some form of licensure or certification through examination or similar arms-length assessment mechanisms.
5. Once in a profession, its practitioners are given opportunities to use their unique knowledge, skills and abilities (aka, competencies) to influence matters of public importance. There is a general recognition among stakeholders outside the profession that these practitioners play a valuable role in contributing to organizational success.
6. Gain competence, new abilities, and additional experience performing the profession’s roles and responsibilities. These become useful in achieving ever-higher levels of competence as the profession evolves to meet its changing responsibilities to the public over time.
7. Gain mastery of the body of knowledge by undergoing rigorous preparation, which for most professions occurs at the graduate level of recognized, leading universities. Most professions also have numerous venues for providing education and training in its required abstract knowledge areas. Because a body of knowledge exists, practitioners in a profession can have their knowledge and learning measured by assessing them against existing standards derived from the body of knowledge.
8. Undertake continuous in-service training (i.e., through self-learning, mentoring, coaching, or internships) and personal growth after completing one’s formal education. Many professions require regular assessments of updated and growing knowledge. These are commonly accomplished through its professionals documenting how they are meeting 3-5 year continuing education requirements.
9. Pursue ongoing awareness of emerging developments that are significant to lobbying practice, typically by attending professional meetings/conferences/events, reading scholarship about the practice, and/or engaging in regular, formalized networking channels.
10. Have regular access to developments in the practice of adjacent fields. This education is typically offered through advanced educational institutions, although it does not necessarily have to come from a university. The generalized knowledge held by professionals enables them to efficiently and effectively utilize their specialized knowledge in a way that makes the profession relevant to recipients of these professionals’ services.
11. Engage in regular exchanges of ideas with adjacent professionals and occupations in their value chains, usually done via means of formalized networking, reading the adjacent field’s publications, or attending significant professional development meetings or events sponsored by/for the adjacent profession.
12. Lobbyists must belong to membership societies that serve a number of important, public tasks such as:

• Providing for a means of informing and regulating member behavior (e.g., limiting access into the profession, issuing sanctions to individuals who abridge standards of practice or ethics);
• Updating and upgrading member knowledge and skills; providing networking opportunities to allow professionals to share knowledge and practices; and/or
• Serving as a central means for documenting and transmitting the body of knowledge and the standards for measuring performance against it.