The phrase “what is seen and what is not seen” is best because of Frédéric Bastiat and the Bible.
The Economist’s Perspective
The great French Economist, Frédéric Bastiat, ideas that “these were firstly, the immediately observable and obvious consequences of an economic act (“the seen”) and the longer term and less apparent consequences (“the unseen”), and secondly the “ricochet” or flow-on effects of economic actions which may or may not have positive or negative consequences.”
These second-order effects are in the Commission’s Better Regulation Guidelines. Although, in practice, this Commission at the political level has either solved the problem of knowledge or doesn’t consider anything beyond the first consequences.
The Spiritual Perspective
The second is from the Bible, 2 Corinthians 4:18: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
The important things are not seen.
The Lobbyist’s Perspective
In lobbying, the idea is that most of the key decisions are not public. In a recent vocational project with others, something jumped out after chunking down the 90 key steps in any ordinary legislative process. Most of the key windows of opportunity to influence events in those 90 steps are not public. Worse, if you miss them, your chances of influencing the final decision are severely reduced.
Some of these key steps include: the meetings of the inter-service steering group, inter-service consultation, the drafting of the mission letters, and the annual Work Programme go ahead in an atmosphere of quiet anonymity. You get to know about them after decisions are taken but not before.
If you don’t know of the existence of these crucial steps, let alone when they are occurring or who decides on them, your chances of success – getting what you want from the law – are, at the very best, low.
What Can You Do
There are some things you can do to improve your chances of success.
- Know the key steps in the journey of the proposal you are following. Map out similar files and identify in advance the key windows of opportunity and the key people who make and influence decisions.
- You need to keep your ear to the ground to policy and operational developments.
- Be seen by key decision makers and influencers in your field as trustworthy and someone to go to for advice.
- Have the necessary information, answers, and solutions filed away for when the calls come. Decisions are taken fast and early.
- Be ready to respond when called and not be paralysed by the analysis of internal deliberations and meetings.
If you can pull off 1-5, you are going to be a lot more effective. If you want to sit this out, you can write reportage on decisions you had no influence on.