WHAT CAN BE TAUGHT IN LOBBYING/PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY: 3. RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

The value of relationships, and how to maintain them, can be taught, but some of what is needed for knowing how to build relationships perhaps cannot be because it is too much a part of an individual's personality. Perhaps more than anything, a lobbyist's/public policy advocate's market value, especially if they work for a private lobbying firm is their portfolio of relationships. They are retained by individuals, corporations and interest groups, often for significant amounts of money, because they have built relationships with powerful, influential individuals. By doing lots of little favors for lawmakers, such as connecting them with important constituencies, supplying valuable information, helping plot strategy and being generally useful, a lobbyist/public policy advocate builds a reciprocal relationship based on trust and mutual need and a sense of obligation. The danger, which we can warn students of, is that these relationships can end up being more important to lobbyists/public policy advocates than the people they are supposed to represent.

So what can we teach students about relationship building? Arguable, five elements of relationship building are teachable. First, what can be taught is that relationships with lawmakers are not like real, personal relationships or even many relationships in business. They are built on mutual need, the ability of each person to provide the other with something they have to possess to achieve their goals. Second, relationships are targeted, and lobbyists/public policy advocates must know with which lawmakers they need to build relationships to get their work done. A particular lawmaker should be targeted because the lobbyist/public policy advocate has something to offer the lawmaker, who, in turn, will offer the lobbyist/public policy advocate a crucial point of access to the lawmaking structure. Students can be taught, to some extent, to identify which lawmakers might be responsive to the information they can offer, and who have an electoral-based interest in aiding the constituency the lobbyist/public policy advocate represents. Or perhaps the lobbyist/public policy advocate have a mutual interest in the same areas of public policy.

Students can be taught to identify these links. They can be taught best practices in identifying targets and how to approach them. THey can be taught to respect a lawmaker's precious time, learning the best time to approach a lawmaker, like when an issue important to both the lobbyist/public policy advocate is about to come up, and when to stay away, such as when there is no chance the issue of concern to you both is going to come up. Lawmakers and their staff rarely have time for small talk.

Third, it is vital that any student who hopes to have a career in lobbying/public policy advocacy better learn to at least look like they are enjoying spending time with other people. Sometimes, time spent socializing for the interest group needs to be balanced with time spent with friends and family. To be seen by the lawmaker shows that you value the legislator, and helps build the sense of obligation.

Fourth, students should do an internship or practicum often more than one. The first professional relationships can be built during such internships. Reinforcing the long-term benefits of building a professional network can complement teaching about relationship-building in class.

Finally, the ethics of relationship building, such as they are can be taught. A curriculum on professional lobbying/public policy advocacy, like law or medecine, must incorporate a code of ethics. What can we teach about ethical behaviour? Not lying, the most basic rule of all lobbying/public policy advocacy can certainly be taught. Similarly, students can be taught the importance of confidentiality. If they understand the importance of reciprocity and mutual need defining the lobbyist/public policy advocate-lawmaker relationship, then the crucial importance of honesty ought to be self-evident. They can also be taught that there is a crucial exception to the confidentiality rule of the lawmaker-lobbyist/public policy advocate relationship- the lobbyist/public policy advocate is, first and foremost, an agent of an organised interest or client employing them and that they, not the lawmakers, are a lobbyist's/public policy advocate's first responsibility. This may mean the ethical lobbyist/public policy advocate cannot promise the lawmaker confidentiality if something comes up crucial to the people the lobbyist/public policy advocate represents, even if the relationships furthering their professional ambitions are better served by prioritizing the lawmaker's needs. Of course good lobbyists/public policy advocates make sure there is never a conflict between what their members and clients know and what lawmakers know so there is no confidentiality problem. Mastering this balancing act, though, is something one has to learn on the job; it cannot be easily taught.

Ethical training ought to address the need to balance the public interest with their clients' specialized interests. After exoploring conceptually whether ther is such thing as an objective common good or public interest, future lobbyists/public policy advocates can learn how it may be more of their responsibility for achieving it than it is for a lawyer to see his or her client convicted when, they, in fact are guilty. Put another way, just as an ethical lawyer must see that a client's due process is followed if she or he knows they are guilty, so too must an ethical lobbyist/public policy advocate vigorously advocate the interests of the people he or she represents. The ethical lobbyist/public policy advocate is a faithful advocate for the political interests of others, not the interests of the entire polity.