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THE PROFESSIONALISATION OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION | 179

A particularly acute ground for ‘making things better’ is the dysfunctional state of the
political system across Europe.There is a low level of civil respect for politics, and a low
level of civil participation in party politics and even in voting. At the same time there is
a range of urgent issues that need to be addressed, such as migration, terrorism, and
organised crime. This demands an awesome volume of professional persuasive
communication. The dilemma is, however, that all the professional campaigning and
lobbying risks increasing even further the citizens’disregard for politics.

If the professionalisation of political communication would indeed make things better,
what issues does this raise in the context of the question about democratic quality?

Are all the stakeholders equally well served by the professionalisation of communicative
functions?

Professional communicators obviously serve the special interest lobbies. The examples
abound around such global trade negotiations as take place at the World Trade
Organisation. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, lobbied through professionals
very effectively during the preparations for the Agreement on Trade-Related
Intellectual Property Rights in the early 1992. Equally, the unelected office holders –
such as Central Bankers or EU Commissioners – use professional spokespersons,
external relations managers,and news analysts.

In this chapter the focus is on the communicative actions that take place between the
elected politicians and the citizens.

Since democracy in whatever theoretical model does imply relations – cooperative or
combative – between citizens and politicians, an evident issue is which side in the
political system benefits most from the professionalisation process.

Professionalisation seems to focus almost exclusively upon the politicians’ side of the
communicative functions of the political system. This may begin to change with the The Professionalisation of Political Communication: Democracy at Stake?
professionalisation of communications by social movements. Or, at any rate, with the
improved capability of many civil groups to reach out to audiences (among others
through a great variety of websites) and their growing effectiveness in media news
management. But for citizen movements certainly there are resources available
comparable to those the political parties have for their professional communication
advisors.

Politicians in most countries are, by and large, more assisted by professional helpers in
their communications with citizens than citizens are professionally advised in their
communications with the politicians. Current processes of professionalisation
emphasise the democracy of representatives, not the democracy of citizens. There is a
tendency among elected political officials to claim that their decisions are the people’s 181