Revolving around roles – Public affairs practitioners as democratic enablers or as hired guns

Abstract

This paper offers insights into how public affairs practitioners perceive their often-debated role in the political process. By examining the specific group of public affairs practitioners called “revolvers”, i.e. individuals who move from a position in the political sphere to a position as a public affairs consultant or vice-versa, we engage in the on-going discussion concerning the legitimacy of public affairs in modern democracies. The empirical material consists of interviews with revolvers who as public affairs practitioners have experience of working in the Swedish political sphere, as well as the commercially driven public affairs industry. Consequently, the article contributes to our understanding of lobbying in the political process from the perspective of the controversial revolvers and gives us an important insight into how revolvers in Sweden argue and act in their efforts to create legitimacy for their role by attempting to fuse corporate and public interests. The perception which is predominant in this study, suggests that the revolvers regard themselves as a kind of corporatist influence in a democratic society rather than a special interest influencer. The revolvers appear to find common ground when defining the purpose and contribution of their occupation as advocates, but that different lines of arguments arise when practitioners displace and differentiate themselves from the tainted work connected to lobbying and advocacy tasks. Hence it is clear that there is tension between the professional role conception and role performance.