Political Lobbying – How to Effectively Impact on a Policy Process

For some observers, political lobbying is a euphemism for dubious interactions between big business and corrupt politicians. Others believe that lobbying is an essential component of a lively representative democracy. In any case, more resources are invested every year in the management of relations between various organizations and political decision-makers. In recent years, the NGO sector, too, has started to professionalize its relationships with the political world. This presentation has three aims: First, to discuss what lobbying is and how it works. Second, to provide some insights from NGO lobbying. Third, to discuss issues related to ethics of lobbying.

ABOUT ALEX FISCHER
Alex Fischer works as a head of the public affairs unit of WWF Switzerland. In addition, he kept his affiliation with Central European University as Associate Professor. He served as full-time faculty member at the Department of Public Policy from 2005 until 2007. From September 2000 to August 2005, he worked at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, IDHEAP, in Lausanne, Switzerland. In parallel, he has also taught foreign and European Politics at the Universities of Berne and Fribourg, Switzerland.

An event of the POLITICISED LANDSCAPES program. POLITICISED LANDSCAPES is a series of collateral events for SOME KIND OF OPPOSITION, an exhibition by AXEL BRAUN based on films by ÁDÁM CSILLAG and FEKETE DOBOZ. The series of events is supported by Institute for Advanced Study at CEU, Kunststiftung NRW, Visual Studies Platform at CEU and Blinken OSA Archivum.

The program is in English.