RECONCEPTUALIZING PAC FORMATION It’s Not a Collective Action Problem, and It May Be an

After criticizing current models of political action committee (PAC) formation as flawed both in the samples used in tests and in the specifications tested, we develop a new explanation of PAC formation that emphasizes competition for access among those already engaged in lobby-ing. We test both organization- and state-level implications of this alternative account, respec-tively, employing survey and aggregate data on PACs in the American states. The empirical findings provide preliminary support for our explanation and sharply contradict prior evidence that PAC formation is governed by problems of free riding. If Cohen, March, and Olson (1972) applied their &dquo;garbage can&dquo; model of organizations to political science research, they might start by noting several cans holding, respectively, a variety of data sets, the concepts and hypotheses discussed in the literature, and a number of scholars in need of publishing. The temporal sorting of material in the three garbage cans would then be used to explain why certain research Authors ’ Note: This article was prepared for presentation at the 1995 annual meeting of th