What Lobbying Ethics and What for? The Case of French Lobbying Consulting Firms

Abstract

Conversely to the United States, lobbying consulting in France is a relatively recent activity and is perceived negatively by a majority of the population. Influencing public decision-making is certainly a sensitive occupation at both managerial and societal levels. This is why ethics applied to business can play a central role while establishing the practice of lobbying in France. This paper examines the issues and the practices of ethics in lobbying consulting. The field for this exploratory study is a lobbying consultancy firm based in France. Our research is developed through a 3-month participant observation and complemented with secondary data on the lobbying profession in France. The results of this research are developed along two lines: (1) The practice of ethics in lobbying consultancy firms reveals its limits as well as a framework worth developing. The players and the represented client topics are potential dangers for ethical lobbying firms. This intervention research has nevertheless allowed us to observe the emergence of an effective regulation approach: the ethics of exemplarity as potentially illustrated by a representative actor of the French lobbying consulting profession. (2) The stakes of ethics are both internal and external to lobbying consulting professionals in France. Internally, ethics act as a structuring element enabling this profession to establish itself with practices and deontological codes; externally, it clarifies the relationship between lobbying consultants and their major stakeholders including customers, government, and the civil society.

Appendices

Appendix 1: List of Interviewees

• LC: CEO, 5 client-consultants, 2 operational managers.

• French Secretary of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transports and Housing, General Commissariat on Sustainable Development: EC, Department head for responsible consumption and production, “Chef du Bureau de la consommation et de la production responsables, Ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable, des Transports et du Logement, Commissariat général au développement durable.”

• Vigeo, Leading European Expert in the Assessment of Companies and Organizations with Regard to Their Practices and Performance on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG): FB, Director of methods and institutional relationships on the criteria of ‘influence strategies and policies transparency and integrity’ “Directeur des méthodes et des relations institutionnelles de Vigeo sur le critère « transparence et intégrité des stratégies et des pratiques d’influence».”

Appendix 2: LC’s Code of Responsible Lobbying, Developed with the Intervention Researcher

A1 Respect of assemblies	Lobbyists respect the rules of procedure of meetings, including the latest provisions on lobbying. Moreover, lobbyists only visit the enclosure of the assembly following an invitation of one of its members
A2 Respect of political time	Lobbyists are part of a democratic system, including respecting “the political time,” that is to say, are prohibited from intervening from the time the final decision is in the hands of the public decision-maker (in terms of regulations as well as on public procurement)
A3 Separation of public and private interests	Neither the role nor the competence of public actors can be confused with those of private actors. The specificity of mandates and legitimacies sets the lobbyist’s working rules To avoid any confusion of interests, lobbyists or members of a public affairs office cannot cumulate the exercise of their profession with a national mandate or employment in a parliamentary assembly, ministerial cabinet, or civil service
B1 Sharing information	Sharing information is a prerequisite for the construction of public policies. Lobbyists feed this dialog by transmitting information. They integrate viewpoints, testimonies, and studies submitted by the actors of society
B2 Taking account of all stakeholders	The dialog should allow the expression of all stakeholders without exception. Companies and organizations identify their stakeholders, expectations, and needs of these and dialog, exchange, and negotiate with different stakeholders such as employees, customers, but also institutional players present in the region, NGOs, consumer associations, and other opinion groups
B3 Objectivity and fairness of the debate	Lobbyists seek to promote a debate in the respect of all ethical and democratic rules. At conferences, financial, cultural, political, or supporter factors do not impair the objectivity and fairness of the debate
C1 Transparency on the principal	In contact with policy makers, the represented interests are precisely defined (identification of mandates), so that elected officials or administration knows exactly for whom an intervention is being performed
C2 Transparency on expertise	The provision of information to policy makers is based on sourced and verifiable data. Expert inputs require full transparency on their origin, their authors, their methodology, and their financing
C3 Transparency in the actions and positions	For an open and constructive dialog, all contributions submitted to the debate must be listed. Proposals must be accessible in order to offer the possibility of reaction: they must be subject to debate Similarly, the actions taken vis-à-vis the public authorities are part of a process open to all interested parties. It is thus interesting to communicate more fully on lobbying activities and reflect a greater openness to the missions and initiatives undertaken (clubs, visits, participation to a think tank, parliamentary symposia, etc.)
D1 Useful and limited Invitations	Established relationships exclusively target promoting information sharing, the most complete possible knowledge and understanding of the terms of the debate in the context of formation of a transparent public debate. The proposed meetings (visits, lunches) are organized exclusively for substantive work. Lobbyists refuse to make gifts for “forcing” political interlocutors
D2 Refusal pressure	Exchanges with public stakeholders must not comprise any threat or expression of a personal benefit for individuals and their public mandate. Lobbyists refuse to put pressure on government officials to support their positions
D3 Flow of official information	Lobbyists refuse to seek to dishonestly collect diverted or unavailable information. In their communication with policy makers, they aim to use the accepted channels of information
E1 Individual responsibility	An internal employees’ conscience clause protects employees who do not wish to embark on advocacy they do not deem legitimate Lobbyists encourage social responsibility principles for the ideas they develop, projects they encourage, and commitments they make
E2 Organizational Responsibility	The approaches supported by the lobbyist organization incent to promote justice, development or creation of jobs, the environment, public health, human rights, diversity, and all the great principles of international law
E3 Professionalization of the approach	The lobbyist organization provides training for its staff on topics on which they work but also on the methods they employ. Tools and procedures are available to them to promote an increasingly professional approach

Appendix 3: Descriptive Statistics on Total LC Client Population and Sample Population by Type of Organization, Sector, and Size

• 1. Industry

  A variety of twenty-two industries are represented in the total population. Thirteen of the most representative sectors are included in the 18 cases audited for this study.

• 2. Type of organization

  Our sample, of which a good half represents professional associations and a bit less than a third are private enterprises, differs slightly from the total client population that comprised 42 % professional associations and 32 % private companies.

• 3. Size

  Size is based on the number of employees. In the case of trade groups, the number of employees represented was taken into account. The size can be converted into brackets based on the French Institution of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE): 0–10 is considered small, 10–500 medium, and above 500 is computed as large.

  LC clients are mainly large organizations, well represented in the sample we studied.

Total client population by industry

Industry breakdown	Number	Percent
Energy	7	9
Health	7	9
Research	6	8
Social services	5	7
Consulting	4	5
Environment	4	5
Real estate	4	5
Industry	4	5
Political	4	5
Agriculture	3	4
Agro alimentary	3	4
Construction	3	4
Distribution—commerce	3	4
Finance	3	4
Transports	3	4
Insurance	2	3
Communication	2	3
Water	2	3
Training	2	3
New technologies	2	3
Small business	1	1
Tourism—hospitality	1	1
Total	75	100

1. Bold rows are industries represented in the research sample

Total client population by type of organization

Organization type	Number	Percent
Prof. associations	32	43
Private companies	24	32
Government	10	13
Public companies	5	7
Other	4	5
Total	75	100

Total client population by size

Size	Number	Percent
Large	59	79
Medium	8	11
Small	1	9
Unknown	7	1

Descriptive statistics of the sample of 18 LC clients analyzed in this study

Industry	Size	# of employees Prof. associations: # of employees represented	Type
Service	Large	2,000,000	Trade group
Agro alimentary	Large	690,000	Trade group
Industry	Large	266,000	Trade group
Real estate	Large	170,000	Trade group
Environment-water	Large	130,000	Trade group
Health	Large	80,000	Trade group
Agriculture	Large	26,000	Trade group
Insurance	Large	12,000	Trade group
Agriculture	Large	8735	Trade group
Real estate	Large	4400	Trade group
Environment	Large	79,219	Private company
Industry	Large	184,804	Private company
Communication	Large	4800	Private company
Energy	Large	1748	Private company
Real estate	Unknown	–	Private company
Health	Unknown	–	Private company
Political	Medium	178	Government org.
Construction	Large	29,000	Other