TO LOBBY ALONE OR IN A FLOCK - FORAGING BEHAVIOR AMONG ORGANIZED INTERESTS

At present, we have Little theory accounting for variations in allianc e behavior among interest organizations. To address this problem, we e xtract three hypotheses about social hunting from foraging theory als developed in behavioral ecology. The foraging theory hypotheses about resource competition, resource distribution, and individual sources of variation in alliance activity are tested with data on interest organ izations in the American states. We report preliminary support for sev eral foraging theory hypotheses and discuss how they might be more rig orously tested in future research.