Co-operation as currency: how active coalitions affect lobbying success

Coalition action is a common lobbying strategy to exert influence over policy, but is rarely addressed in studies of lobbying success. This article adds to resource exchange theory, firstly, that active co-operation with others to gather information, optimize strategies and jointly signal a position should increase lobbying success similarly to spending economic resources on lobbying on an issue individually. Secondly, it expects important interactions between active co-operation and economic resources, because the costs and benefits of co-operation will be distributed unequally among partners who invest different levels of resources themselves. Using new survey data on lobbying on 50 policy issues in five European countries, the article provides strong support for these expectations: Active co-operation on an issue increases lobbying success measured as perceived influence. Moreover, it mediates the effect of individual economic resources on lobbying success. These findings have important methodological and normative implications regarding alternatives pathways of lobbying power.