  We present a framework for understanding the demographics of star cluster
systems, and develop a toy model which incorporates a universal initial power
law mass function, selected formation histories, selected disruption laws, and
a convolution with common artifacts and selection effects found in
observational data. The model confirms that the observed correlation between
the brightest young cluster in a galaxy and the total number of young clusters
can be understood as a statistical size-of-sample effect, rather than a
difference in the physical process responsible for the formation of the
clusters. A comparison is made between different cluster disruption laws and it
is shown that the break in the dN/d\tau diagram used to determine the
parameters in the Boutloukos & Lamers model may be produced by incompleteness
near the breakpoint. A model of the Antennae galaxies is developed and compared
with the observational data. An important component of our model is the use of
a "two-stage" disruption process, with a very high "infant mortality" rate for
the clusters with ages less than \approx10^8 yrs (i.e., roughly 80%-90% are
lost each factor of ten in time, \tau, independent of mass), and two-body
relaxation, which becomes the dominant disruption mechanism at older ages,
preferentially removing the lower mass clusters. Hence, in our model, stars
from the dissolved clusters form the field population. We note that a 90%
infant mortality rate for each factor of ten in \tau (i.e., dN/d\tau\propto
\tau^{-1}) is consistent with all measured young cluster populations, including
those in the Antennae, Small Magellanic Cloud, and the Milky Way.
