The Diversity of State Interest Group Systems

Abstract

As part of a larger effort to develop an independent system-level theory of interest groups, we explore the system-level trait of interest group diversity. A model of state interest group diversity is developed and tested with state data from the early 1980s. We find that interest group diversity is related to economic diversity and economic size, whereas its relation to wealth and to the number of interest groups contrasts sharply with much of our conventional wisdom about state interest groups. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding state interest group politics and outline how they contribute to a larger research program on state interest group systems.