Summary. Unit 14

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 553.

A major component of corporate public affairs is government relations, because the actions of the government bodies at the local, state and federal level have a major impact on how a business operates. Government relations specialists have a number of functions: they gather information, disseminate management's views, cooperate with government on projects of mutual benefit, and motivate employees to participate in the political process.

Lobbying is closely aligned with government relations. GR is a broader term that denotes a number of activities related to the monitoring of government and the dissemination of information. Lobbying is a more specific activity. A lobbyist is ‘a person acting for a special-interest group, who tries to influence the voting on legislation or the decisions of government administrators'. Lobbyists can be found at the local, state and federal levels.

Although lobbying is legal in America, deep public suspicion exists about former legislators and officials who capitalize on their connections, which is called influence peddling and is identified as unethical.

In 1995 Congress passed a measure to reform lobbying. The key provisions of the New Lobbying Reform Bill are: expanded definition of the term; the re gistration of lobbyists with Congress and disclosure of their clients; prohibition of lobbyist-paid lavish lunches and drawn-out dinners. New rules also exist for gifts and travel. It is illegal to accept gifts over $50 and privately paid travels.

Grassroots lobbying use such tools as advocacy advertising, toll-free phone lines, bulk faxing, websites, EDM aimed at generating phone calls and letters from the public to Congress, the White House and governmental regulatory agencies. Grassroots lobbying with its orchestration of public feedback is often claimed to be unethical. Another problem involves doing grassroots lobbying under the cover of front groups (stealth lobbying), because the public isn't told what vested interests are behind a particular campaign.

Political action committees were created as a labor union mechanism in the 1930s. Nowadays there are more than 4000 PAC's organized by labor unions, business, trade groups, professional societies and single-issue groups. Under the law, a PAC can support its candidate financially. The bigger a company, the more PACs it can have and the more money it can provide.

American-style campaigning is the most expensive in the world, which is caused by enormous fund-raising activities of incumbent lawmakers. A popular activity in Washington D.C. is the luncheom, reception, or dinner on behalf of a legislator's reelection campaign. Such events are attended by individual donors or lobbyists. Some consultants specialize in direct mail and telemarketing.

Political campaigns are conducted with the help of various PR tools, such as constant focus groups, polls, satellite media tours, video news releases and even interactive multimedia.

Public affairs in government has a variety of functions: informing the public about the public's business, improving the effectiveness of agency operations, providing feedback, serving as ombudsman and educating bureaucrats. However, such governmental efforts are often criticized for propaganda and wasting tax payers' money.