What do communications specialists working in politics and corporations have in common? Is it shared aims, analogous working methodologies, or similar professional profiles? Politicians, public institutions, election campaigns, executives, consumers and clients, advertising, social responsibility, lobbies, employees, activists, investors, reputation - these terms, and many others, are realities which both groups of professionals have to work with, and this might lead us to think that political and corporate communications follow paths that diverge. However, careful analysis of the origins and current situation of these areas offers some ideas that can help us understand the ways that these young professions, both of which can look forward to considerable expansion in the present century, actually converge in substantial aspects of their work.
