Population ecology of actors in public affairs types of interests and policy domains

The population ecology of interest representation refers to a set of theoretical models that explain the numbers and types of organizations attempting to influence public policy (Lowery and Gray, 2015). Population ecology assumes that the numbers of organizations in a given system depends on the resources available for organizational survival (Gray and Lowery, 1996a) such as (potential) members and political uncertainty. Competitive pressure affects the birth (entry) and death (exit) rates of organizations and, via specialization and partitioning, sets the limits of the number of organizations in a given ‘niche’ environment (Hannan and Freeman, 1989; Gray and Lowery, 1996b). Communities of organizations active in public affairs may either be defined by their collective aims (from the ‘bottom-up’) or on the basis of observed activities in venues of political decision-making (‘top-down’). The map-making approach and the actual ‘maps’ of public affairs communities are important ingredients for any targeted public affairs strategy.