Populists in the Pluralist Heaven:

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Abstract This paper explores the e ect of direct democracy on state interest group populations, pro- viding an empirical test of a formal model of how access to the initiative process a ects group formation and activities (Boehmke 1999), which predicts that more groups will mo- bilize and become active in initiative states. This prediction is supported by the ndings in this paper, which also suggest that the e ect of the initiative on group mobilizations has increased from the late 1970s to 1990. The prediction that groups that face a greater collective action problem are in uenced more by the initiative is also con rmed since government and social groups are among those most a ected. Counterfactual analysis indicates that the initiative process makes a state's interest group population more diverse, though the gains are decreasing from 1975 to 1990.
1 Introduction The bias in the interest group system is a well documented phenomenon: every systematic study of group populations has con rmed the skew towards business groups and corporations. 1 This is a result of the collective action problem inherent in mobilizing groups where the ben- e ts of their actions can be enjoyed by anyone but the costs are borne solely by the members (Olson 1965). While scholars have concentrated on how groups o er a mix of selective and purposive bene ts to induce individuals to join (Rothenberg 1992; Chong 1991), little work has been done on political institutions' role in mobilization decisions. By changing the ability to in uence policy they create a corresponding shift in the incentive to be active. Instead of focusing on the costs of mobilization | including the ways in which particular groups overcome the collective action problem | this paper examines how altering the ability to achieve the bene ts of it a ects interest group formation. While the cost of overcoming the collective action problem is relatively constant for any particular type of group in the United States, the bene ts of doing so vary according to which political tools it has at its disposal. By studying state interest group populations this paper shows the cumulative e ects of shifts in these incentives for individual groups. In particular, I focus on the role of direct democracy in increasing the incentives for group mobilization and show that groups react to the ability to utilize this political institution by forming in greater numbers. This is to be expected since work on the initiative has shown both formally and empirically that it is easier for groups to in uence policy when they have the option of circumventing the 1 The rst such study is Schlozman and Tierney (1986) and their ndings have been repeated by Walker (1991) and Heinz, Laumann, Nelson and Salisbury (1994), among others. 1
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Page 5 and 6: helped reduce the known pro-busines
Page 7 and 8: institutions are critical in shapin
Page 9 and 10: to seventy-one, a thirteen percent
Page 11 and 12: The concept of diminishing marginal
Page 13 and 14: coe cients. The Virginia School's w
Page 15 and 16: whole e ect since they do not accou
Page 17 and 18: and thirty in Ohio and Michigan. Th
Page 19 and 20: to circumvent the legislature in se
Page 21 and 22: standard error in three subpopulati
Page 23 and 24: diverse than non-initiative states.
Page 25 and 26: it drops to 0.147 in 1990, moving i
Page 27 and 28: initiative process. Strong support
Page 29 and 30: Greene, William H. 1993. Econometri
Page 31 and 32: and Social Movements. Ann Arbor: Un
Page 33 and 34: Table 3: OLS Results for Total Grou
Page 35 and 36: Table 5: Florida's Interest Group P
Page 37 and 38: 0 AZ CA WA CO SD MO IL NE OH OK MI
Page 39 and 40: 180 1975 1980 1990 160 140 120 100
Page 41 and 42: 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 Percent Change 0
Page 43 and 44: Table 7: OLS Results for Mining Sub
Page 45 and 46: Table 9: OLS Results for Manufactur
Page 47 and 48: Table 11: OLS Results for Trade Sub
Page 49 and 50: Table 13: OLS Results for Service S
Page 51: Table 15: OLS Results for Social Su

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