Life in a niche: Mortality anxiety among organized interests in the American states

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 interests 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.