Introduction

Public affairs consultants have risen to prominence in recent years, but their very existence is a relatively new development, as this population of organizations developed largely in the 1970s and 1980s and has become institutionalized as a regular element of the political system in the years since. This chapter examines how it was that “grassroots” went from being predominantly a characteristic of advocacy organizations and local citizens’ groups to a tactic also employed by elite actors when seeking popular support.

It does so by calling attention to the major restructuring of American civic life following after the protest movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which the increased activism of American government in new regulatory and social domains led to both an expansion of citizen engagement and, later, a heightened degree of political activism by businesses and industry groups. Those new organizations, many of which were groups with a professional staff and direct-mail fundraising operations, and which were often reliant on the backing of powerful external patrons (both in foundation grants and in direct corporate support), illustrated the power of harnessing new communications technologies to mobilize citizens as lobbyists. Making use of the increased availability of new communications technologies, consultants – many of whom had personally cut their teeth in the fields of citizen advocacy, corporate lobbying, and especially electoral strategy before opening up their own shops – were more than happy to apply those technologies and skills on behalf of the new population of would-be clients.