Lobbying by firms to influence public decision : is it a legal or an illegal networking ?The cases of France and the United kingdom

Lobbying by businesses is a practice that has become increasingly widespread today, but hardly studied in Europe. This paper endeavours to determine whether corporate political operations differ significantly from one country to the other. To address this question in Europe, lobbying by French and UK firms is analysed by creating a database from a number of the biggest financial newspapers in both countries over the last years. Multivariate data analysis techniques are used to model corporate political actions in France and the UK. Our results suggest that there is only a few lobbying practices. Three types of lobbying practices can indeed be found in France as well as in the UK. This could suggest that firms' reaction to their political environment is less determined by country specific factors, although national specifics exist, than by the particular problem try to address..