Can we make a generic power metric?

[ronan-mch]

All lobbying is not created equal, a letter to all members of the Oireachtas is a less powerful form of lobbying than a meeting with a minister. Can we devise a power metric that will show the power that different organisations wield?

Such a metric should include:

Ranking of lobbying type, ranking of DPO lobbied.

[daramcq]

Certainly we could, but I can't think of anything that isn't going to be really arbitrary without linking to effects (which is really hard). I don't think a power metric is necessary or useful for writing an article.

PS - If I was going to suggest a way to look at specific traceable influence, it would be via text similarity between submissions to government and printed legislation.

[daramcq]

Whoops, closed by mistake! There are intrinsic rankings in both political status and civil/public service positions, but I don't really know what the value of a power ranking is versus a 'X groups had the most meetings with ministers'.

[ronan-mch]

I actually think it could be useful as it would allow standardised comparison of organisations and sectors. The reason I suggest it is that the lobbying reported takes a large number of forms, from meetings with senior civil servants to phone calls with ministers, to blanket social media campaigns. I think the only components it would need to include are t = lobbying type and n = number of DPOs, such that p = t/n. Thus a social media campaign reaching 30 TDs would give you 1/30 = 0.03, whereas a one-to-one meeting would give you 7/1 = 7 (assuming these weights for type).

I'm not taking into account the rank of the DPO as it might be more powerful to meet with the civil servant responsible for some particular policy than a generic TD.