Public Relations, Political

Political public relations refers to the strategic communication activities of actors participating in the political process that aim at informative and persuasive goals in order to realize single interests. Beyond this rather general outline, however, the concept of public relations is quite inconsistent. The term's definition varies according to discipline and perspective. In general, three different approaches can be specified:

• 1
  From a micro-perspective, public relations is defined by its instruments and activities (“Public relations is what public relations does”). These depictions of public relations are often adopted by practitioners and professional associations emphasizing normative views in order to justify their doing. Accordingly, these definitions often stress the idea of harmony and postulate the creation of mutual understanding.
• 2
  Today, organization theory provides the most prevalent concept ...