ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of political public relations (PR) in democratic societies with a particular focus on governmental communication in the United Kingdom. It examines the specialist area of public affairs and lobbying work. The chapter also discusses the importance of intelligence gathering and monitoring the policy making processes as well as exploring how organisations can seek to influence governmental actors, policy development and ultimately legislation through various public affairs strategies. Interest group theory suggests that the democratic public policy process is an attempt to reach a compromise between the competing goals of a multitude of interest groups. The power and influence of the grassroots has not gone unnoticed and in recent years the practice of manufacturing a grassroots campaign to try to influence policy makers has become much more common. Building a public affairs strategy around grassroots campaigning is sometimes accompanied by the strategy of coalition and alliance building with other interest groups.
