Can the Red Queen help? A new approach to explaining the formation of interest groups in the USA

Abstract

This article uses the theory of Red Queen competition to predict patterns in the founding of nationally active interest groups in the USA. The theory of Red Queen competition holds that competition among groups in a population is history-dependent such that each organization’s competitiveness is a function of its historical experience. The theory predicts that: (1) a population relatively full of recently experienced incumbent organizations is extremely uninviting for newcomers; and (2) a population relatively devoid of recently experienced competitors (and thusly full of incumbents whose competitive experiences are either minimal or concentrated in the distant past) is relatively inviting for newcomers. We test these predictions against data from two group populations. Ultimately, we find strong support for the theory of Red Queen competition and its substantive predictions.