Life in a Niche: Mortality Anxiety Among Organized Interests in the American States

• Author: Virginia Gray,David Lowery
• Published date: 01 March 1997
• Date: 01 March 1997
• DOI: 10.1177/106591299705000102
• Subject Matter: Articles

25

Life

in

a

Niche:

Mortality

Anxiety

Among

Organized

Interests

in

the

American

States

VIRGINIA

GRAY,

UNIVERSITY

OF

MINNESOTA

DAVID

LOWERY,

UNIVERSITY

OF

NORTH

CAROLINA

AT

CHAPEL

HILL

We

extend

recent

research

using

a

population

ecology

framework

to

understand

the

structure

of

interest

communities

by

examining

how

niche

resources

and

population

density

influence

the

survival

prospects

of

inter-

ests

organization.

We

indirectly

assess

how

resources

and

density

bear

on

survival

by

examining

mortality

anxiety-assessments

of

the

likelihood

that

interest

organization

will

soon

face

an

existence-threatening

crisis.

Several

hypotheses

on

mortality

anxiety

are

extracted

from

the

population

ecology

research

program

and

tested

with

survey

data

on

interest

communities

in

six

states.

Research

using

a

population

ecology

framework

recently

has

opened

a

new

topic

within

the

study

of

interest

representation:

accounting

for

the

struc-

ture

of

interest

communities

(Gray

and

Lowery

1996a).

Based

on

population

biology

(Hutchinson

1957;

1959;

Lack

1947;

1954)

and

organization

ecology

(Hannan

and

Freeman

1977;

1989;

Hannan

and

Carroll

1992),

this

research

program

examines

the

births

and

deaths

of

lobbying

organizations

(Gray

and

Lowery

1995a),

their

competition

for

viable

niches

(Gray

and

Lowery

1996b),

and

the

density

and

diversity

of

lobbying

communities

(Lowery

and

Gray

1995a;

Gray

and

Lowery

1996c).

While

contributing

to

our

understanding

of

NOTE:

We

wish

to

acknowledge

the

contributions

of

University

of

North

Carolina

at

Chapel

Hill

students

Ruffin

Hall,

Jonathan

Jordan,

Yun-Jie

Lee,

and

Kristin

Siebenaler

who

conducted

the

survey

We

also

acknowledge

the

assistance

of

University

of

Minnesota

students

Stacey

Hecht

and

Wyman

Spano

at

earlier

stages

of

the

survey

project.

Robert

Paolino,

Paul

Kramer,

Steven

Taylor,

Keith

Katko,

and

Jennifer

Alstad,

all

of

the

University

of

Minnesota,

provided

assistance

in

gathering

the

state

lobbying

data;

we

are

most

appreciative

of

their

efforts.

Finally,

Virginia

Gray

acknowledges

the

financial

support

of

the

National

Science

Foundation’s

Visiting

Professorship

for

Women

Program.

26

interest

communities,

better

integration

of

these

topics

is

required,

especially

in

terms

of

how

interest

organization

niches

and

population

density

influence

interest

organization

mortality

Many

interest

organizations

do

not

survive

for

long

(Gray

and

Lowery

1995a),

and

survival

rates

are

strongly

influenced

by

the

densities

of

interest

communities

(Lowery

and

Gray

1995a).

Population

ecology

models

credit

these

outcomes

to

the

extremity

of

niche

resource

partitioning

that

must

occur

within

very

dense

interest

communities.

Gray

and

Lowery

(1996b)

assess

this

explanation

by

exam-

ining

strategic

responses

to

competition

over

four

resources

thought

to

bear

on

organization

survival.

They

found

evidence

of

strong

resource

partitioning

for

two

of

the

four

resources-the

hallmark

of

a

vital

resource

in

population

ecology’s

model

of

niche-based

competition

for

survival.

Evidence

of

partitioning

is

not

alone

sufficient,

however,

to

demonstrate

the

importance

of

these

resources.

We

must

also

determine

if

and

how

they

actually

bear

on

the

survival

chances

of

lobbying

organizations.

We

cannot

yet

answer

these

questions

directly

since

data

on

resource

use

and

the

vital

rates

of

organizations

within

multiple

interest

communities

do

not

exist.

In-

stead,

we

indirectly

assess

how

competition

over

niche

resources

bears

on

survival

prospects

by

examining

mortality

anxiety-an

assessment

of

the

like-

lihood

that

an

organization

will

soon

face

a

crisis

threatening

its

existence.

We

first

discuss

several

hypotheses

on

mortality

anxiety

arising

from

the

popula-

tion

ecology

research

program.

These

are

tested

in

the

following

section

with

survey

data

on

six

state

interest

communities.

We

conclude

by

discussing

several

surprises

arising

from

our

empirical

findings.

’

THE

ROOTS

OF

MORTALITY

ANXIETY

We

examine

three

sets

of

hypotheses

arising

from

population

ecology

in

accounting

for

interest

organizations’

assessments

of

the

likelihood

that

they

will

soon

face

an

existence-threatening

crisis.

The

first

concerns

the

level

of

competition

found

within

the

interest

community

in

which

the

lobbying

or-

ganization

is

embedded.

Evidence

of

density

dependence

in

models

of

the

size

of

lobbying

populations

(Lowery

and

Gray

1995a)

and

studies

of

mortal-

ity

rates

across

interest

communities

(Gray

and

Lowery

1995a)

suggest

that

such

competition

increases

with

density;

greater

density

increases

death

rates

and,

thereby,

depresses

the

growth

of

lobbying

populations.

Competition

arising

from

density

might

bear

on

mortality

anxiety

in

at

least

two

ways.

First,

greater

density

should

lead

to

sharper

partitioning

of

niche

re-

sources

so

that

realized

niches-as

defined

by

the

resources

organizations

actually

rely

on-diverge

farther

from

fundamental

niches-the

resources

dimensions

that

they

might

potentially

rely

on

in

the

absence

of

competition

(Gray

and

Lowery

1996b).

Many

of

these

realized

niches

will

fall

below

the

threshold

required

for