ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS ON THE DIVERSITY OF STATE INTEREST ORGANIZATION SYSTEMS - A POPULATION ECOLOGY INTERPRETATION

Our stock of theory about variation in interest organization diversity is quite limited. At best, we view diversity as an outcome of mobiliz ation processes. We critique this view and develop an alternative conc eptualization of diversity based on population ecology models of inter est group density. Based on tests of these models (Lowery and Gray 199 5), we simulate how state interest organization diversity responds to changes in the environmental forces governing the growth of interest o rganization populations. We then consider the implications of our reco nceptualization of representational diversity for the further study of interest organization systems.