Disclosure’s Last Stand? The Need to Clarify the 'Informational Interest' Advanced by Campaign Finance Disclosure

Abstract Despite a century of efforts to constrain money in American elections, there is little consensus on whether campaign finance regulations make any appreciable difference. Here we take advantage of a change in the campaign finance regulations of half of the U.S. states mandated by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. This exogenously imposed change in the regulation of independent expenditures provides an advance over the identification strategies used in most previous studies. Using a generalized synthetic control method, we find that after Citizens United, states that had previously banned independent corporate expenditures (and thus were “treated” by the decision) adopted more “corporate-friendly” policies on issues with broad effects on corporations’ welfare; we find no evidence of shifts on policies with little or no effect on corporate welfare. We conclude that even relatively narrow changes in campaign finance regulations can have a substantively meaningful influence on government policy making.

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Interest Groups and Elections

The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Persuasion ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190860806.013.31 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 339-357

Author(s):

Jeffrey M. Berry

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Interest Groups ◽

Campaign Finance ◽

Organizational Forms ◽

Super Pacs ◽

New Organizational Forms ◽

Winner Take All ◽

The Impact ◽

Take All

The relationships between interest groups, political parties, and elections have always been dynamic, but in recent years change has accelerated in ways that have favored some interests over others. This chapter considers these developments as the result of a variety of factors, the most critical of which are the growth of polarization, a new legal landscape for campaign finance, and new organizational forms. The chapter goes on to suggest, that as bipartisanship has ebbed, elections have become winner-take-all affairs and interest groups are pushed to choose sides. The chapter further suggests that the rise of super PACs is especially notable as wealthy individuals have become increasingly important, single sources of campaign money, supplanting in part traditional interest groups, especially conventional PACs. It concludes that even as sums spent by super PACs and other interest groups have skyrocketed, the impact of their direct spending on persuading voters remains uncertain.

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Local election campaign finance regimes in Canada: Toward a research agenda

Canadian Public Administration ◽

10.1111/capa.12400 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 64 (1) ◽

pp. 99-121

Author(s):

Zack Taylor ◽

Shanaya Vanhooren

Keyword(s):

Research Agenda ◽

Campaign Finance ◽

Election Campaign ◽

Local Election

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Teaching Campaign Finance with Federal Election Commission Resources

News for Teachers of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s0197901900000362 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 53 ◽

pp. 14-15

Author(s):

Clyde Wilcox

Keyword(s):

Interest Groups ◽

Political Science ◽

Campaign Finance ◽

Public Office ◽

Federal Election ◽

Science Courses ◽

Federal Election Commission ◽

Campaigns And Elections ◽

Student Projects ◽

Election Commission

Many Political Science courses include sections on campaign finance activity. Courses on Congress and on the Presidency may include sections on the financing of elections for these offices, and courses on campaigns and elections will probably cover campaign finance. In addition, courses on interest groups and on parties may include sections that focus on the activities of these actors in financing campaigns for public office.The Federal Election Commission can provide an assortment of materials that may be useful in teaching about campaign finance. Some of these materials are most useful as sources of data for lecture preparation, while other offerings can be used as part of student projects or papers. In the sections below, these materials will be described, and some classroom uses will be suggested.

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