The Interest Group Community: Density and Diversity

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The Interest Group Community Density and
Diversity

• Session 17

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Explaining Interest Community Density

• The Pluralists The number of disturbances in
  society drives interest community size. As
  society becomes more complex and differentiated,
  the number of organizations grows.
• The Transactions Perspective Once organizations
  for, they survive indefinitely, causing
  institutional scleriosis.

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Explaining Interest Community Density

• The Neopluralists - Population biology and
  organization ecology explain density by examining
  variation in environmental resources
• Resources define a political systems carrying
  capacity.
• Two models assess the impact of environmental
  resources on the density of interest communities

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Density

• Organization Ecology
• Resources needed for survival
• vary over the life cycle of an industry
• Legitimacy is established
• Density dependence
• Implications
• Interest group populations are more than the sum
  of mobilization events
• The severity of the problem of collective action
  is not constant
• The size of a subpopulation of interest groups is
  not unlimited

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Source Anthony Nownes, The Population Ecology
of Interest Group Formation, British Journal of
Political Science (in press).
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Density

• Biogeography Energy-Stability-Area
• Energy political conflict and transition (sound
  familiar?)
• Stability extreme transition in a political
  system
• Area members and sponsors
• Example Bill Gates discovers politics
• Example agriculture, construction,
  manufacturing, local government, welfare, and
  environmental issues in the states

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The Importance of Interest Group Community Density

• Density dependence results from
• The increased difficulty of mobilizing in a dense
  community
• Higher mortality rates in a crowded interest
  group community
• The implications are that
• The interest community stage feeds back into the
  mobilization stage
• The nature of the interest group community does
  not change as rapidly as interests in society

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Diversity

• Measuring the diversity of Interest Communities
• The substantive diversity of interests
  represented by the interest organizations
• Diversity in the types of organizational form of
  interest organizations membership groups,
  associations, institutions

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Explaining Diversity

• Some interest sectors are homogenous others are
  heterogeneous therefore, they respond
  differently to the number of potential members

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Explaining Diversity

• What if we dont find the diversity we expect?
• Bias in the interest group community
• Representation through interest groups is not
  comparable to the principle of one-person-one-vote
  for individuals
• Unrepresented interests may have no need of
  involvement in the political process
• Organizations may represent a wide range of
  interests and a large number of members, or they
  may represent a narrow interest and few members
• Presence on the lobbying roles does not guarantee
  influence

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Mobilizing Institutions

• Institutions are not individuals . . .
• Conclusions of the PAC studies

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