Interest Group Framing and Belief Diffusion in the Battle Over Housing Finance (original) (raw)

The study investigates the influence of interest groups on Congressional members' interpretations of housing finance policy issues, particularly during the lead-up to the 2008 Financial Crisis. It employs semantic network analysis to examine the connections made by members of Congress during hearings and assesses whether access to interest groups alters the ideas that legislators associate with each other. Despite notable trends suggesting increased semantic similarity among linked members, the statistical analysis indicates that the results are not significant given the sample size.