The Influence of Campaign Contributions on the Legislative Process
2014; Duke University School of Law; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1937-9498
Autores Tópico(s)Electoral Systems and Political Participation
ResumoDo campaign donors gain disproportionate influence in the legislative process? Perhaps surprisingly, political scientists have struggled to answer this question. Much of the research has not identified an effect of contributions on policy; some political scientists have concluded that money does not matter; and this bottom line has been picked up by reporters and public intellectuals. It is essential to answer this question correctly because the result is of great normative importance in a democracy. It is important to understand why so many studies find no causal link between contributions and policy outcomes. The vast majority of these studies have looked at the relationship between Political Action Committee (PAC) donations to legislators and the roll call votes these legislators cast. It is relatively easy to identify a set of votes that PAC donors care about and thus determine whether legislators’ votes are aligned with the interests of their PAC donors. It is, however, much more difficult, as I will discuss, to determine the extent to which contributions influence member’s voting decisions. More importantly, as many of us have observed, the influence of contributions is most likely to occur earlier in the legislative process, where less visible actions are taken to kill bills quietly or to negotiate the details of
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