The Expression of Density Dependence in State Communities of Organized Interests

Abstract

We examine a key issue arising from the density dependence hypothesis of the population ecology approach to studying interest communities: the expression of density dependence through variations in the rates of entrance and/or exit from lobbying communities. How such expression occurs will influence (a) the independence of mobilization phenomena from the nature of the lobbying community into which an organization is being mobilized and (b) the prospects of demographic turnover within interest communities. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses of new and more complete data using a more fully specified model generates sharply different results from those reported by Gray and Lowery, suggesting that much greater attention must be accorded to community context in analyses of the mobilization.

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