People use different models for Public Affairs in Brussels.
I see things from my world experience of campaigning (to change policy and laws) and politics (passing laws). This means that I use the tools necessary for those journeys and ditch the rest.
I get the sense that a lot of Public Affairs work is more similar to the education and policy model.
Source: Chris Rose and Simon Bryceson
I hold the niche view that if you face a legislative challenge, you need to use the political model. After all, law-making is a political act.
If you face a campaign, you need to respond in kind with a campaign approach. If you want to get an issue taken up, the campaign model is the right approach.
The standard approach of an educational or policy model will not be that effective when responding to political challenges – either a campaign or a law. I have heard the line “if only we could educate them, so they understood things correctly” thousands of times over my 20-plus years. Over that time, I have never known it to work.
Please let me know if you know of a case when an educational intervention led to a gradual or instant belief conversion by the Commission official, MEP or Minister. Here were are talking about cases when someone said, “Ah ha, you are right, and I have been wrong all along. After reading your report (add variations), I have changed my vote and withdraw my proposal”. If there are such cases, it needs to be known because the value in modelling it is huge.
The policy model is helpful for moulding the policy debate and influencing the ideation stage of the Commission’s preparatory deliberations and policy option drafting.