The Demography of Interest Organization Communities

Abstract

Using population data on six state populations of interest organizations from 1980 and 1990, the authors find that (a) organized interests frequently exit the lobbying community; (b) institutions exit at a higher rate than associations or membership groups; (c) exit rates potentially have great influence on the composition of interest organization populations; and (d) exit, but not entry, rates are greatly influenced by the density of interest organization populations. On the basis of these findings, the authors make a number of suggestions for the further study of the demography of interest organization communities.