A tale of two cities

Since my return to Brussels I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the differences between public affairs in Washington D.C. and how it is practiced here in Europe’s capital. My not so groundbreaking conclusion is that while the objective of public affairs may remain the same, the practice of public affairs is shaped by the market’s conditions.

As such, to kick us off in what I intend (at this stage) to be a series of posts reflecting on my time in the U.S. below you’ll find some contrasts between the two markets that I came up. I’ll take a look at my views on the impacts of some of these pairs in the coming weeks.

Elections v Selections

Politics v Policy

Confrontation v Consensus

Fast v Slow

Closed v Open

Money v Insights

Emotion v Facts

Public v Elite

Many v Few

Periphery v Center

No prizes for guessing which side is Brussels and which is Washington.

James

 

2 Comments

DC life was short but sweet…now for the second coming « From Bubble to Beltway
June 10, 2011 | 4:38 PM

[...] http://publicaffairs2point0.eu/2011/04/14/a-tale-of-two-cities/ [...]

Lobbying
April 25, 2011 | 9:58 AM

Thanks for sharing. I have just a doubt about this opposition: "Emotion v Facts"