It may seem obvious, but lawmaking is a political process., driven by and decided by politicians.
It is not a technocratic, technical, process, even in the EU. The Commission is becoming far less technocratic. The desire to push forward with proposals, whatever the evidence says, in record drafting time, is something I regret.
It is not a rabidly partisan affair, at least in Brussels. The need to secure a consensus relegates the partisan machine to the margins.
It is not a science-driven journey. Scientific literacy amongst politicians is a limited commodity in any country.
Evidence has an important place. The right evidence, brought forward at the right time, in an understandable way by and to the right people, changes outcomes.
Who Decides and Influences Outcomes
In most legislative proposals in the EU, there are around 200-250 people who influence and decide the fate of a proposal. This is a mix of elected politicians, civil servants, political advisers, journalists, and academics.
Out of this list, some are going to back you, come wind, rain or shine, and others are not going to back you.
What makes lobbying campaigns more challenging, is that this list is not static. Governments change, politicians and officials move. Who one day decides may not be there tomorrow. If you need stability, you better leave lobbying alone.
Most don’t care about your issue
This leads you to focus on persuading those who are either undecided or more often, apathetic to the issue at hand.
What seems to surprise many lobbyists is that most people don’t care about the issue they are promoting. It is likely that they are at best apathetic about it, and sometimes unaware of it.
This is not a surprise. I have an unhealthy interest in EU fisheries policy. It was not strange to learn that every landlocked country in Europe found the whole annual charade of quota talks in midnight without much interest. And, added to this, was the convention that only countries whose fisheries/ seas were at stake had a say in the political compromise, you had a far smaller number of decision-makers and influencers to work with.
How to get a winning coalition – find a champion
The trick is often to get those who are sitting on the sidelines to throw their votes your way.
There are easy ways to do this.
I’ve found finding a widely respected and middle of the road Minister or MEP to champion your cause will bring the many undecided and apathetic over to your corner. These politicians are hard to find, but when you find them, their support is key to delivering victories. e
It is often best left to the middle of road influencers to do this, rather than you.
Many interests, and their lobbyists, live in a world of confirmation bias. They live in a world were they only know and speak to with interests and politicians in Brussels and the national capitals who already agree with them. This nearly always leads to certain defeat. The smart campaigners and lobbyists create unexpected broad coalitions, from NGOs, Trade Unions, and industry, who work together to help bring about a winning block of votes from the Member States and EP.
How to gain support
If you wanted to put this into an equation, it would look like this:
People + Ideas + Values + Voting Line/Mandate + Mirroring your views with theirs = Support
If you want to get the support you need, you need to go through some research before you start knocking on doors.
First, you need to know who the key decision-makers and influencers are in Brussels and in the national capitals. Put their names down on a sheet of paper, and list out the 200-250 people.
Second, you need to know for most, if not all, of the ideas that drive them. The ideas that will persuade a free-market classical liberal, are different from a social democrat from a trade union background. You need to know the ideas that drive them so that you can reframe your messages to speak to them.
Third, you need to know the voting line of the national political group back home on the issue. It is going to be hard, although not impossible, for an official or MEP to by slight or design to ignore their national political line. Once, the influential Struan Stevenson MEP, the UK Conservative MEP on the fishing committee was going to lend his support to the Spanish EPP MEP, Carmen Fraga. When the UK Conservative Shadow Minister on fisheries, Richard Benyon, was made aware of the UK MEPs divergence from the Conservative Party’s policy, and late-night call to Brussels cleared up an erroneous voting line.
Finally, the trick is to mirror your views with theirs. Most lobbyists can’t do this. They prefer to act as rabid evangelicals who can’t countenance that not everyone sees the world in the same way, and for the same reasons, as they do. This ideological purity is too common and blinds many from building up the winning coalitions they need to. I’ve never been inflicted with this purity of thought. Mirroring is something that works for sales and works in lobbying. If I have to cite Pope John Paul II and Mises in the same day to win over the backing I need, I’ll do it.
Is this not too much work?
A lot of people think the idea of speaking with 200-250 people on an issue is too much. If you have canvassed in a general election or sales calls, 200 + seems low. Until telepathy works more consistently, having a constructive dialogue by speaking with the key decision-makers and influencers is the only way to do.
You can divide up the conversations. Some who are never going to support you, you can drop. Your firm allies, you can check in less frequently. Meeting the people who decide and influence the outcome is more productive than having endless internal meetings and calls. One key lesson learned from a remarkable turnaround was that the summer vacation put on hold internal calls, to allow my colleague from another organisation and myself to lobby.
Every time I’ve used these ideas my clients win, although never for the reasons they believed in. I am always happy to take the victory, if not the conversion. Political campaigning is not fishing for souls, it is about winning votes.