Township of Wabash, Estados Unidos
Estados Unidos
How does the coordination strategy of interest groups change during a crisis?Shocks reduce an economy’s resource pool and increase the competition forwhat is available. Interest groups participate in the policy-making process bylobbying legislators. In times of crisis, we argue, interest groups lobbyingCongress coordinate in cohesive industry-wide communities led by keyactors. Rather than lobbying for narrow policy privileges, interest groups seekto support legislation that is most beneficial to their community. To studythe cooperative behaviour of interest groups we build an original networkdataset based on committee participation in the Ecuadorian Congressbetween 1996 and 2015. We present evidence of increasingly homophilicindustry networks in times of crisis, with umbrella organisations taking therole of hubs. Wefind that‘lone wolf’strategies, prevalent during aneconomic expansion, are less prevalent during a crisis