Policy requires shaping and managing people’s behaviour, so understandably those groups of persons affected by policy either positively or negatively are important actors to be consulted in the policy formulation process. Policy actors can be categorized broadly into three sectors of society: State, Market and Citizen.

Policies are made i.e. they are formulated by a wide range of players i.e. elected officials and their appointees. In the private sector, policy makers are CEOs, Boards of Directors and other top ranking corporate officials.

The notion of political representation of interest groups is clearly related to functional rather than territorial representation. Interest groups are generally defined as organisations that are separate from government that attempt to influence public policy. They provide institutionalized linkage between the government or the state and major interests in society.

The European Commission has a two-fold incentive to support European Civil Society: input legitimacy in the policy making process, and the creation of a vibrant polity or social sphere for social cohesion and policy entrepreneurship. In fact, this desire might be even more acute in the Commission which has had to continually fight for legitimacy in the face of member state governments. The Commission hopes that NGOs can construct a transnational civil society, or European social sphere, and in so doing, enhance the legitimacy and saliency of the EU with the European public.

Public policy advocacy has become an integral part of the democratic governmental process in many nations. Tens of thousands of individuals and organizations are now paid to represent diverse clients’ interests before governmental institutions, and more are engaging in this activity every day. Their work derives from the fundamental democratic concept that in a democracy every individual and all other legitimate interests corporations; associations; non-profit organizations; religious organizations; etc.