Numerous experiences suggest that too much reliance on referendums and other instruments of direct democracy may lead the electorate to make self-defeating choices. James Madison made it very clear in Federalist No. 63 that the defining principle of American democracy, as opposed to Athenian democracy, ‘lies in the total exclusion of the people in their collective capacity.’
Because it is so robust and resilient, representative democracy guarantees the vital distinction between those who hold political power (understood as sovereignty) and can legitimately delegate it by voting, and those to whom that power is delegated and who fulfil their mandate by governing transparently and accountably. For this system to work, however, those who hold power must not only control those to whom they have delegated it but must also connect with them. That’s the weakest link in modern democracies. Besides elections, there is no connection, or next to no connection. The existence of a few online petitions or public consultations ends up making us feel even more powerless by ensuring our engagement is as passive as ever.
So, contrary to what the proponents of direct democracy argue, the challenge ahead is not to maximise popular influence in the political process, but to make that influence more effective – and meaningful. We should therefore cultivate fewer, not more, participatory opportunities, but render each more meaningful for citizens.
We urgently need innovative forms of participation that can bring us closer to our representatives. Citizen lobbying is a form of engagement that, unlike direct democracy, complements rather than antagonises representative democracy. But like direct democracy, it prods citizens to engage proactively with their elected representatives and their policy and political agendas.
Citizen lobbying is able to provide this missing feedback mechanism and bring it into the policy mainstream. Think about what Zagat does for restaurants, Amazon for books, Uber for transportation, and AirBnB for house-sharing. What these companies have in common is they empower each of us to craft a service according to our preferences, at the exact moment of using the service. Citizen lobbying can do the same for the policy process: offering a trust-based feedback mechanism that can nudge officials to do their jobs better. Designing mechanisms like these demands a deep understanding of the participants’ incentives and reputational value, but their purpose is clear: by ensuring quality control, they enhance the accountability of both service provider and user/policymaker and citizen. As Part III explains, some apps – generally tracking systems – allow you to do this more effectively. The UK site Rate Your Politician has allowed its users to rate politicians and policies since 2008. As such the site makes it easy to keep an eye on the UK’s parliament by helping people to discover who represents them, how that person has voted and what they’ve said in debates – simply and clearly.
STORY – The DREAMers
The issue
For the roughly 2 million undocumented citizens living in the United States, it is extremely difficult to obtain the right to reside in the country. The DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act proposes offering that right to citizens who meet certain qualifications. If the bill passes, up to 850,000 people could benefit.
The action
The bill was first introduced in the Senate in 2001, but has yet to make it through both legislative houses of the US. It was in 2010, following a monumental push from determined activists, that it came closest to doing so. Backing up campaigner Carlos Saavedra’s claim that the group would ‘put so much pressure on every single senator that is standing between ourselves and our dreams’, the group staged high-profile sit-ins in the offices of John McCain and Harry Reid, and supporters made 77,000 phone calls in a single day to senators, urging them to pass the bill. The centrepiece of the demonstrations was a 1,500-mile walk from Miami, Florida, to Capitol Hill in Washington DC, by four students known as the DREAMers.
Mission accomplished?
Not yet. Despite passing through Congress in 2010, the bill was stopped in its tracks shortly afterwards by a filibuster in the Senate. It has failed to make any progress since then.
Does that make it a failure?
After all that effort, they didn’t get the bill passed… doesn’t that mean citizen lobbying can be a waste of time? No! Despite the obvious disappointment, the activists succeeded in making the plight of the United States’ many undocumented citizens a public issue. In 2012 then President Obama announced that his administration would stop deporting young, undocumented citizens who meet certain criteria which were originally proposed by the DREAM Act. But to understand citizen lobbying, we have to look beyond the end result. It goes without saying that the ultimate goal of the DREAMers was to see the bill passed, but the words of the activists themselves show us that the journey they went on personally was equally important. After ‘coming out’ as an undocumented citizen, Felipe Matos, one of the students who went on the interstate walk, commented: ‘I can embrace my struggle in a very public way and I don’t have to be scared’. This was echoed by Reyna Wences, who highlighted the liberating nature of the demonstrations: ‘There was something about actually coming out and saying it in front of the immigration offices that was so powerful’, she said. This is the key message to take from citizen lobbying. Through the fight to create a better world for you and your fellow citizens by playing an active role in the democratic process, you become truer to yourself and closer to the rest of society.
The citizen lobbying road is guaranteed to be lined with positive experiences, whether you achieve your original goal or not.
Let’s sum up the case for citizen lobbying.
At a time of growing demand for direct democracy, citizen lobbying provides an innovative form of citizen participation in the policy process which complements rather than antagonises representative democracy.
Citizen lobbying creates an additional, permanent channel of contact between elected representatives and electors between elections and, as such, it reconciles protest and proposal.
In a democracy, public engagement through lobbying broadens the influence people can wield in the policy process and enhances accountability. It makes policymaking better by tapping a bigger reservoir of ideas and resources.41
Citizen lobbying does not just scrutinise government and make it more responsive, but also helps everyone feel (and become) a part of the policy process. It counters the undue influence of special interest groups. Likewise, it challenges the claim of consumer and citizen groups to represent the people, acting as an egalitarian force in society. It helps elected representatives to identify and pursue the public interest. It improves the quality of policymaking while giving all of us a chance to learn about how government works.
As political narratives and economic and social agendas change across the world, lobbying offers citizens an innovative form of constructive engagement with and influence over the political discourse in our local or national communities. It provides an opportunity to overcome barriers to the acquisition of knowledge produced by growing inequalities.42
Finally, there is a strong correlation between societies characterised by a political culture of critical citizenship – as opposed to allegiant citizenship – and more accountable governments.
It’s time we turned the widespread criticisms of politics into an active democratic virtue.
PART III
THE TOOLBOX
How to Be a Citizen Lobbyist
‘Freedom is participation in power.’
Cicero
‘Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.’
Credo of Spanish Civil War
Most of us perceive the world of lobbying as mysterious and uninviting. Some are even afraid of it, as if lobbying were taboo. Yet we have just seen how it can help us make a difference to our lives. Indeed, lobbying is one of the most effective yet least understood ways of taking control of our lives. First, it enables each of us to realise our untapped talents, expertise and passion. Then it lets us channel these resour
ces into the causes we feel most deeply about in order to bring about change. Finally, it boosts our individual and collective wellbeing thanks to the positive correlation between engagement and happiness.
Never has there been a better time to start experimenting with citizen lobbying. More and more democracies are throwing open the policy process to citizens as they recognise the need for more inclusive decision-making.1 Novel forms of public participation and engagement are emerging that are opening up new ways for citizens to get involved.2
It’s time to seize your power as a citizen and learn how to use it in your daily life. That’s the purpose of Part III.
Some of the questions I hear most often are:
When is it best to remain low-key rather than going public?
When do you push for a face-to-face meeting, send emails and/or launch a digital campaign?
When do you need scientific studies for evidence as opposed to symbolic arguments?
How do you decide whether to team up with somebody else?
Before we open the ‘citizen lobbying toolbox’ to address these queries, let’s get something straight. Firstly, there is no one-size-fits-all method for successful lobbying. There is no such a thing as the best advocacy strategy, the best lobbying avenue, the best tactic; successful lobbying must be tailored to the situation in hand. Lobbying is a plunge into deep waters, and, while we can always learn diving technique from others, how we execute those techniques will vary based on different conditions and on our own abilities. Since political agendas and processes alter over time, the tools, techniques and tactics of lobbying have to change as well. Lobbying has to be context-specific. This is not to say that it cannot be taught – but lobbying must be understood as an adaptive process, or a set of steps that we need to follow in order to influence policy outcomes.3
Three main factors shape the lobbying game:
the nature of the issue at stake (e.g. animal welfare, nuclear energy or LGBT rights);
the constitutional and institutional setting (e.g. who is competent to act? The city council, an international organisation or the Prime Minister’s Office) and
special interest groups (who wins and who loses from each outcome and their respective influence).
These three factors determine how you should tailor the lobbying plan, avenues of action, arguments, tactics and alliances. It’s important to get the mix right.
In order to bring about change, any lobbying plan must also be frequently reassessed – together with its tactics, messaging and overall understanding of the lobbying environment – so that it remains relevant. Contrary to what you might have heard, lobbying is not about taking decision-makers out for expensive dinners and offering them gifts. Nor is it just sending a few emails or even launching a digital campaign; these will not necessarily be enough to make your lobbying effort a success. Lobbying is more than just spending time with decision-makers; it requires the ability to understand the dynamics governing policymaking, its actors and processes as well as what makes the media tick. And it requires a lot of rigorous research work so you can demonstrate the empirical evidence backing up your recommendations and provide facts that show they are viable. Lobbying demands the ability to communicate to multiple audiences and know what those audiences need and expect. Often it requires mobilising some public support – through, for instance, grassroots activism.
In short, lobbying is what feeds the little-known but powerful world of policymaking. By bringing fresh ideas, data and energy to the policy process, it pumps blood into the veins of the political system.
Citizen lobbying is no exception. Like other kinds of lobbying, it requires a context-specific, evidence-based approach if it is to persuade decision-makers. It is the process by which citizens get organised, formulate arguments, identify targets, select tactics and decide whether to work with others in an attempt to influence public policy, thus improving their daily lives.
The 10-Step Citizen Lobbying Guide
The 10-step framework that follows will help you devise a successful lobbying strategy. We will then explore how to execute each step in further detail.
This is a comprehensive plan of action to guide and empower citizen lobbyists. It’s practical but leaves you a lot of room for creative thinking and adaptation.
Pick your battle. The list of possible issues is pretty much infinite. How do you choose yours? Techniques such as monitoring and issue identification (which we’ll discuss shortly) can help, but co-generation of ideas within your community is key. To succeed you need to be as passionate as you are strategic about your issue.
Do your homework. Any lobbying action requires some research work. Your research should generally focus on hard facts, figures and data. Expert and authoritative sources will help to back up your position. They must first be summed up in a background document and then distilled into a single-page factsheet that explains why the issue matters, at what level(s) of government it may be addressed, how you propose to solve it, why the solution will work – and, ideally, how your solution(s) work elsewhere around the world. You’ll need this evidence not only to convince others, but also to structure your mind around an issue you feel passionately about. Your homework will help you keep your cool and give you credibility in front of audiences that may want to try to make you look foolish.
Map your lobbying environment. Before you design your lobbying strategy, you need to draw a map that shows who your possible allies and opponents are. This map will be a working tool that allows you to identify:
the lobbying target (e.g. relevant policymakers);
people you might work with (e.g. allies);
your opponents (in order to anticipate their arguments and avoid traps).
Knowing who these groups are will be key to preparing the answers that will be expected from you during the lobbying.
Draw up a lobbying plan. Once you know what you’re going to lobby for, and with whom, you need to devise a comprehensive lobbying strategy. This means identifying the best course(s) of action to take in order to make your case. Should you engage in inside lobbying (directed at political parties and government) or outside lobbying (targeted at the general public and media)? Should you concentrate on formal or unconventional kinds of engagement and influence? (You can of course combine both.) Be aware that your choice of action and tactics will determine virtually all the ensuing steps, from branding and coalition-building to communication and funding.
Pick your allies. Once you have your map, you can work out whom to encourage to join your cause. Generally, the broader-based your coalition, the greater the chance you have of attracting the attention of policymakers. Be open-minded: it isn’t just non-profit organisations that can be brought on board. Companies can too, if they will add value without questioning the legitimacy of your plans. You might even find that your most obvious allies, such as the NGOs active in your field, are not necessarily ready to team up with you.
Raise money. Citizen lobbying does not necessarily require funding. Yet, while volunteering can work wonders, you might still have costs to meet. Depending on the nature, scope and extent of the action, you could need help from friends and family, and perhaps some seed capital, to cover some of the expenses you might encounter. Putting together a campaign plan and estimating the costs for each element will give you a clearer sense of your fundraising goal. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for money; people will respond if you let your passion and belief shine through.
Plan your communication. Lobbying involves communicating with at least three different audiences: policymakers, the general public and the media. Depending on your lobbying strategy you must work out how and when to talk, and to whom. Sometimes you must also determine who speaks on behalf of your issue.
Face-to-face meetings. Meeting face-to-face with policymakers is the essence of citizen lobbying. It is not just desirable but often vital for your campaign. These meetings are your opportunity to connect with the decision-makers, and their chance
to listen to you and learn about your cause. You need to make sure you are fully prepared, even if you only end up talking to an assistant! You will need to know how to introduce yourself and ‘speak the language’ (the talking points) that the decision-maker uses.
Monitor progress and delivery. You may have managed to ‘sell’ your issue to one or more policymakers who will promote it through the political process, but that’s not the end. You need to remain vigilant and help them to make sure that your cause will advance.
Stick to lobbying rules. During your campaign, you must keep an eye on the law. What can and can’t you do? The good news is that as a citizen you are not only entitled to lobby any public official, but you are also free to do so without automatically being subject to the rules governing professional lobbying.
To make the presentation of each step tangible and salient with you, the next sections of the book will be referring to my past and on-going advocacy campaigns. In particular, I will make reference to a campaign – co-created with an academic colleague – aimed at restricting the marketing of alcohol in Europe.
STORY – Alcohol Marketing Restrictions
Who hasn’t longed for a glass of French wine, or a fresh Belgian beer? Alcohol is more than a marketable product for most Europeans: it is part of their history and their culture. The European Union has the highest rate of alcohol consumption in the world – 10.2 litres of pure alcohol per person per year.
Lobbying for Change Page 9