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Learnable skills, or unteachable instinct? What can and what cannot be taught in the lobbying profession

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Abstract

In this article, we make the case that there is a critical set of knowledge, skills and abilities that can be taught to pre- and early-career lobbyists at the graduate professional training level. We acknowledge that, as with any profession, there are intrinsic personal qualities and life experiences that improve the ability of lobbyists to represent their clients and contribute to the policy process. Yet, we also identify three basic areas of lobbying in the literature that can structure a curriculum to prepare prospective professional lobbyists to be effective and ethical advocates for their clients’ interests. First, recent research on interest group politics and lobbying can offer students and practitioners insight into the structure and dynamics of lobbying communities. Second, the literature highlights three useful kinds of knowledge – political process, substantive policy and analytic – that can be systematically taught. Third, the consensus among political scientists that lobbying plays primarily an informational role implies that students should master oral and written communication strategies for effective advocacy. And finally, best practices in building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders in the policy world can be modeled. We then recommend a curriculum that offers training in these areas through a combination of seminars, simulations and a practicum experience that may be delivered in person, online or through a hybrid course.

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Notes

  1. The idea for these divisions was suggested to us in an interview one of the authors conducted with Dan Hurley, a government relations and communications specialist with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, on 25 August 2014. We also need to acknowledge the work of Lee Drutman (New America Foundation) and Ray Scheppach (University of Virginia) who joined a round table discussion of these ideas at the 2014 American Political Science Association meeting in Washington DC, as well as the helpful comments of those in the audience, including Craig Holman (Public Citizen) and Jacob Straus (Congressional Research Service).

  2. Unfortunately this is not just a poor attempt at humor. A recent study of local government budgets in the United Kingdom found that it required fewer years of education to comprehend Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and Isaac Newton’s Principia than what is needed to understand many council budgets. See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2805454/Council-budget-Call-Einstein-Study-finds-takes-time-understand-texts-published-genius-scientists-learn-decipher-local-authority-documents.html.

  3. It perhaps goes without saying that if students better understand how statistics will serve their career aspirations, we may mute the famed moaning-and-groaning (‘Why do I have to take research methods if I don’t want to be a political science professor?’) that dominates most methods courses.

  4. Or so we have heard from colleagues who teach these classes.

  5. An assertion made in an interview with Brad Fitch, President of the Congressional Management Foundation, on 4 September 2014. The assertion is supported by a communication from Nicole Folk Cooper of the Congressional Management Foundation, dated 11 September 2014, on file with Holyoke and available on request.

  6. The American Government Relations Professionals Code of Ethics may be found at http://grprofessionals.org/join-all/code-of-ethics/, accessed 21 October 2014. Of course, only members of this association are bound to uphold this code, and as lobbyists are not required to belong as with traditional bar associations, there is little enforcement.

  7. Interview on 11 September 2014.

  8. Internships in state legislatures can teach many of the same skills, and there are a lot of lobbyists who do very well in the states.

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Correspondence to Heath Brown.

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Holyoke, T., Brown, H. & LaPira, T. Learnable skills, or unteachable instinct? What can and what cannot be taught in the lobbying profession. Int Groups Adv 4, 7–24 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/iga.2014.27

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