Abstrakt
Do lobbyists engage in political representation? And beyond the categorizations operated in political science, are they trying to be seen as political representatives? If so, and if their efforts are at least in part successful, what does this imply for how we understand their clients' status in politics - in other words, does the work of political representation that they do for firms, individual companies, contribute to constituting economic actors into political subjects? In this paper, we discuss the representational character of the lobbyists' work, in particular, as part of a broader interrogation on atypical practices of political representation, and also, on the changing place and status of private actors in politics. The observations presented here are based on a comparative research of professional lobbyists (that is, lobbyists-for-hire), in two countries, Poland and the Czech Republic, and on the observation of an annual meeting of a European lobbyists' association, PACE (Public Affairs Community of Europe).