When Stability Shifts: How Interest Groups React to Policy Disturbances Across Europe

Sixty years of research on interest groups show that organised interests mobilise politically when their interests are disturbed. Yet, we still know relatively little about how such groups respond strategically to external disturbances. In a cross-country survey experiment across seven European countries and the EU, involving around 550 organisations, we examine the effects of diffuse and concentrated policy disturbances—relative to stability—on five possible strategic responses: investing additional resources in lobbying and media presence, hiring external consultants, joining advocacy coalitions, strengthening their support base, or scaling down and reassessing priorities. We design a 2×2 experiment that operationalises stability, diffuse, and concentrated disturbances as government spending retrenchment or expansion—either within a group’s main sector or across sectors—compared to stable spending. This allows us to test pre-registered expectations grounded in established theories such as collective action, rent-seeking, venue shopping, and resource dependency. Our findings aim to illuminate how interest groups adapt and participate in European politics during periods of crisis and turbulence.