Why does anyone need a lobbyist?
Ever heard about a government decision and said, “How on earth did that happen?”
Governments and their processes aren’t perfect and many, many factors in the decision-making process, whether Ministerial or departmental, can produce an unsatisfactory outcome:
- inadequate staff or budgets,
- internal or external demands which run counter to reality,
- a need to act quickly, or an inability to act quickly enough,
- inflexible senior managers or politicians,
- poorly evaluating risk or poorly weighing competing claims,
and many more.
So, to minimise the risk of the wrong decision, anyone who needs government to do something important probably needs to be inside the process: ensuring policy is well made, policy instruments are well chosen, implementation is well planned, governance is effective, and so on.
But why do they need a lobbyist to do that stuff? Why can’t they do it all themselves?
Some can, and many organisations and individuals try, but can lack the time, patience, strategic planning, or advocacy and research skills, to get their idea into a good enough shape to be well-considered.
It’s the same reason an organisation might engage a lawyer, or an accountant, or any other professional – a recognition that if the issue to be dealt with is important, they might need to buy in the expertise for it to be done well.
My previous blog post linked here provides a book extract which itemises a lengthy list of things a lobbyist might do on any particular project. Can you, yourself, do everything necessary or desirable to advance your project?