Development of a model-algorithm for a business organization GR-campaign using system-functional approach

Introduction. Russian political science continues the discourse on conceptualization of such a phenomenon as government relations (GR) regarded today as one of forms of a constructive dialogue between the state and business. Although the interaction between the state and the business has been studied in the Russian political science since 1990s - early 2000s, it remains largely open to further research into a variety of areas including issues of building and implementing GR (lobbying) strategies and tactics to affect officials and state bodies involved in the decision-making process. With the exception of the “project” model suggested by A. S. Avtonomov, the existing GR-management algorithms turn out to be simplified and superficial, they do not provide for a more detailed consideration of this activity and identification of its specific features, thus leading to a distorted perception of this activity among theorists and experts. This calls for the development of a deeper conceptual basis for the analysis of lobbying campaigns by business entities, which can be facilitated by a system-functional approach that describes lobbying from a cyclical perspective. Aims. To propose an original model-algorithm of a GR-campaign implementation, identifying its structure and describing the content of each stage. Methods. Managerial and communicative approach to lobbying backed by a system-functional approach interpreting interaction between business and the state as a dynamic and repeated process; modelling to formulate the algorithm of a GR-campaign. Results. Highlighting drawbacks of the existing GR-campaigns models, including the most developed “project” model presented by A. S. Avtonomov, the research has proposed the synthetic system-functional model structure for GR-campaign. This model includes new stages of a lobbying campaign, e.g. facing the problem, communicative impact on state bodies, summarizing the results of GR-activity. The consideration of the communicative aspect enables to more precisely reflect in the model a subject-subject character of the political-managerial interaction. The authors describe the particularities of the identified stages and “terminating” phases for each stage. The analysis also revealed several specific cyclical situations such as “cyclical feedback”, “spatial jump” and “reverse”, which lobbyists have to deal with in practice. Conclusions. The current conceptual models of GR-campaigns proposed by Russian political scientists are largely simplified and lack theoretical basis. This largely results from a perception of GR as a practical activity with no theoretical foundation. Considering GR as a cyclic process, i.e. as a series of successive and coherent stages, has a large heuristic potential, as it provides for an attempt to produce an algorithm for strategic and tactical elements of GR-process and decompose the lobbyist's activity into structural components, while revealing potential specific features arising in practical GR-campaigns.