Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T17:33:19.866Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The (Sometimes Surprising) Consequences of Societally Unrepresentative Contributors on Legislative Responsiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael Bailey
Michael Bailey*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The conventional view of private campaign contributions is that they distort policy to the detriment of society. Formal models consistent with such views, however, are based on restrictive assumptions about the nature of campaigns, interest groups and policy dimensionality. This paper relaxes those assumptions and allows for informative campaigns, multiple interest groups and multiple issue dimensions. It uses analytical and computational methods to demonstrate that private campaign contributions from societally unrepresentative contributors can, under reasonable conditions, improve social welfare. Multidimensionality is important because politicians need to be responsive on salient issues to prevent opponents from raising money based on less salient issues and using the money to publicize positions on salient issues.

Keywords

campaign financerepresentationcomputational models
Type
Research Article
Information
Business and Politics , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , December 2004 , pp. 1 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2004 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ansolabehere, Stephen, de Figueiredo, John and Snyder, James. 2003. Why is There so Little Money in U.S. Politics? Journal of Economic Perspectives 17, 1: 105–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashworth, Scott. 2003. Campaign Finance and Voter Welfare with Entrenched Incumbents. Manuscript, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Austen-Smith, David. 1987. Interest Groups, Campaign Contributions, and Probabilistic Voting. Public Choice 54: 123–139.Google Scholar
Bailey, Michael. 2004. The Two Sides of Money in Politics: A Synthesis and Framework. Election Law Journal 3, 4: 653–669.Google Scholar
Bailey, Michael. 2003. The Other Side of the Coin: A Computational Analysis of Publicly Financed Campaigns. in Kollman, Ken, Miller, John and Page, Scott, ed. Computational Political Economy Cambridge: MIT University Press.Google Scholar
Banks, Jeff. 1990. A Model of Electoral Competition with Incomplete Information. Journal of Economic Theory 50: 309–325.Google Scholar
Baron, David. 1994. Electoral Competition with Informed and Uninformed Voters. American Political Science Review 88: 33–47.Google Scholar
Clawson, Dan, Neustadtl, Alan and Weller, Mark. 1998. Dollars and Votes: How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Coate, Stephen. 2001. Political Competition with Campaign Contributions and Informative Advertising. Manuscript, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Coleman, John and Manna, Paul. 2000. Congressional Campaign Spending and the Quality of Democracy. Journal of Politics 62, 3: 757–789.Google Scholar
Denzau, Arthur and Munger, Michael. 1986. Legislators and Interest Groups: How Unorganized Interests Get Represented. American Political Science Review 80: 89–106.Google Scholar
Drew, Elizabeth. 1999. The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Enelow, James and Hinich, Melvin. 1989. A General Probabilistic Spatial Theory of Elections. Public Choice 61: 101–113.Google Scholar
Francia, Peter, Green, John C., Herrnson, Paul S., Joe, Wesley, Powell, Lynda W. and Wilcox, Clyde. 2000. Donor Dissent: Congressional Contributors Rethink Giving, Public Perspective 11: 29–32.Google Scholar
Grossman, Gene and Helpman, Elhanan. 2001. Special Interest Politics. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Richard. 1996. Participation in Congress. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Heinz, John, Laumann, Edward, Nelson, Robert and Salisbury, Robert. 1993. The Hollow Core: Private Interests in National Policy Making. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hinich, Melvin and Munger, Michael. 1994. Ideology and the Theory of Political Choice. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Judd, Kenneth. 1998. Numerical Methods in Economics. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lohmann, Susanne. 1998. An Information Rationale for the Power of Special Interests. American Political Science Review 92, 4: 809–827.Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur and McCubbins, Mathew. 1998. The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morton, Rebecca and Cameron, Charles. 1992. Elections and the Theory of Campaign Contributions: A Survey and Critical Analysis. Economics and Politics 4: 79–108.Google Scholar
Mueller, Dennis and Stratmann, Thomas. 1994. Informative and Persuasive Campaigning. Public Choice 81: 55–77.Google Scholar
Popkin, Samuel. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Prat, Andrea. 2000. Campaign Spending with Office-Seeking Politicians, Rational Voters, and Multiple Lobbies. Journal of Economic Theory 103(1): 162–189.Google Scholar
Prat, Andrea. 2002. Campaign Advertising and Voter Welfare. Review of Economic Studies 69: 997–1017.Google Scholar
Snyder, James. 1989. Election Goals and the Allocation of Campaign Resources. Econometrica 57, 3: 637–660.Google Scholar
Sorauf, Frank. 1992. Inside Campaign Finance: Myths and Realities. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Stratmann, Thomas. 2002. Can Special Interests Buy Congressional Votes? Evidence from Financial Services Legislation. Journal of Law and Economics 45: 345–374.Google Scholar