The Enlightened Lobbyist: Inequality and Influence in European Public Affairs

Lobbying in the European Union is typically studied as an organizational activity explained through resource exchange, information provision, and institutional opportunity structures. This paper introduces the core argument of the book The Enlightened Lobbyist: Inequality and Influence in European Public Affairs: lobbying is an inherently interpersonal practice in which individual lobbyists—rather than organizations alone—mediate access, credibility, and political influence. Lobbyists are not interchangeable carriers of organizational interests but socially embedded actors whose biographies, skills, beliefs, and professional trajectories shape how interests are represented in EU policymaking. Drawing on theories of exchange and socialization, the paper develops an individual-centred framework that explains how unequal career pathways and professional norms structure who gains voice and influence. By foregrounding individual lobbyists as representatives in their own right, the paper reframes lobbying as a problem of democratic equality and shows how individual-level inequalities become embedded in patterns of access and representation in European public affairs.