Abstract
This article looks at the ways in which political representation is used as a symbolic resource of legitimacy by those acting as intermediaries between the private and the public sectors, professional lobbyists. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Michael Saward, the article puts forward an analysis of whether, how and in relation to whom lobbyists claim to be representatives in order to acquire a recognized position in the policy-making process.
Representative claim-making by lobbyists matters, we argue, as an indicator of the status acknowledged by the public to private actors in politics. In the Czech and Polish cases, even though the invisible character of the lobbying practices seems to limit the range of roles lobbyists can adopt in front of the general public, lobbyists mobilize representation as a resource both directly and indirectly when brought to justify their involvement in public decision-making.