Lobbying in the Postal and Telecommunications Sectors: What Civil Servants Want

Abstract

In the postal and telecommunications sectors, operators and users’ groups employ regulatory specialists to monitor policy developments and to attempt to influence the direction those developments take. Among the contacts with whom these regulatory specialists must, in doing so, engage, are officials at ministries, departments and directorates. The authors have interviewed 15 such officials and surveyed 28, from across Europe and Australasia. The results have shown scope for improvement in the approach taken by regulatory specialists. More interestingly, the results have also given clues as to the manner in which this improvement could most usefully be achieved. This includes ensuring that, in the short-term battle to influence policy, the regulatory specialist does not risk their long-term credibility. That achieved, the results also suggest that regulatory specialists should temper their expectations, frame arguments in broad economic terms, and share as much objective information as possible. According to interviewees and survey respondents, improving their approach in these ways will help regulatory specialists ensure their message is not only more likely to be understood but also more likely to be believed.