In an attempt to make this book accessible to undergraduates and nonexperts, I have avoided jargon whenever possible and stuck to the facts, rather than presenting an overarching theoretical scheme or conceptual framework. Nonetheless, the data I present here and my previous research on lobbying and lobbyists suggest that the threefold classification system of lobbying used in this book is more than simply a convenient organizational device. It is useful in and of itself in helping us understand lobbying and lobbyists. It is useful primarily because it points up the fact that not all lobbying is the same. In other words, there are important differences between (1) public policy lobbying, (2) land use lobbying, and (3) procurement lobbying. In this brief appendix, I explain why I chose to divide lobbying into these three categories and how my threefold classification system can help us understand lobbying.

THE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

As I pointed out in Chapter 1, public policy lobbying is the lobbying that accompanies government decisions (e.g., laws, rules, regulations, court decisions) made in response to societal demands for action on important issues of the day; land use lobbying is the lobbying that accompanies government decisions rendered in response to specific requests for permission to utilize land in a certain way; and procurement lobbying is the lobbying that accompanies government decisions concerning which specific goods and/or services the government will purchase. Most actual cases of lobbying, I believe, can be placed into one of these three categories.