No description available.

No description available.

One of the underlying themes in American politics is that the addition of campaign finance laws at the presidential election level will have a negative relationship with amount of influence and money in campaigns and the amount of regulation. In other words, as regulation goes up the amount of money and influence will decrease. However, with the recent 2004 presidential election this concept has surely been shown to be problematic, at least at the outset. The purpose of this thesis is to examine this relationship and to further expand upon the limited knowledge of this sub-field of political science. This thesis will suggest that the intended result of campaign finance reform may not necessarily be realized. Subsequently, we must ask ourselves whether or not campaign finance regulations actually result in the intended consequences. Federal campaign finance laws do not necessarily reduce the amount of money and influence by special interests in presidential elections. In examining presidential campaign finance regulations do higher levels of regulations really have an impact upon the amount of money (influence) collected and spent in a particular campaign? The McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Act of 2002 (officially implemented in 2002), or the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), was a rudimentary attempt to dramatically change the electoral system in terms of money. In fact, this bill was the most comprehensive overhaul of the electoral system in a quarter of a century (at least since the 1970's) and one of the underlying reasons, arguably, for the bill was to limit soft money and interest group contributions to presidential candidates or to the presidential campaigns during a given election cycle. Basically, the attempt was made to limit the "money" in politics and particularly in presidential campaigns. However, as most media outlets have claimed (such as CNN) that money or contributions given by individuals and various organizations and the amount of money spent by each campaign (President Bush and Senator Kerry) in the most recent presidential election of 2004 surpassed that of any previous presidential election cycle. Part of the reasoning for the limitation of soft money in presidential elections is the whimsical "myth" that more money in presidential elections will inevitably lead to more influence of the executive branch by big time donors such as labor unions, business, wealthy persons, and by interest groups to name just a few. In other words, wealthy interests such as those mentioned in the previous sentence, would theoretically have a greater impact on the electoral process than by individuals. This concept is briefly examined. Of course, the data will come from many sources with government resources being the dominant resource. The FEC began collecting campaign finance data since the 1970's and much of the data comes from published data files from the FEC. Additionally, data will be taken from other government resources such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S Bureau of Labor statistics. Other data contained within in this will be properly noted.

Thesis advisor: R. Shep Melnick / The United States now has an extensive, publicly controlled, and bureaucratic system of election regulation. Until roughly a century ago, however, elections were viewed as private party contests subject to minimal state regulation. We examine how this changed, considering in particular the role played by the courts, given that for much of the nineteenth century they viewed the parties as private, constitutionally protected associations. We consider how and why the libertarian argument concerning free speech came to prominence in the campaign debate, and find that at first neither the reformers nor the courts at any level viewed this as a fundamental obstacle to--or even an issue to be considered in--the regulation of money in politics. This shift from a private to a public electoral system had a significant impact on American democracy that has not often been examined. To understand these changes, we examine the arguments put forth by advocates of cam-paign finance reform from the nineteenth to the latter part of the twentieth centuries. We focus on how the proponents justified these laws and how state and federal courts responded to these arguments, paying particular attention to court rulings on the constitutionality of these unprecedented statutes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and to the evolution of their jurisprudence in this regard during the twentieth century. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

This dissertation focuses on designing new structural election models and applying modern estimation techniques to quantify policy reform questions. All three chapters use models that are based on individual decision-making and estimate the parameters using a novel data set of U.S. House of Representative elections. These models provide new opportunities to analyze and quantify election policy reforms. The first chapter utilizes a unique compilation of primary election expenditures to see if general election voters value the primary nomination signal. While producing new results on the relationships between primary elections and general elections and between candidate characteristics and vote shares, this model allows me to show that campaign finance reform can have an unintended consequence. A limit on expenditures would have little effect on the competitiveness of elections and substantially decrease voter turnout in the U.S. House elections. In contrast, it is shown that a mandatory public funding policy is predicted to increase competitiveness and increase voter turnout. The second chapter examines why unopposed candidates spend massive amounts on their campaign. The postulated answer is that U.S. House of Representative candidates are creating a barrier to entry to discourage candidates from opposing them in the next election. This barrier reduces competition in the election and limits the voters’ choices. An unbalanced panel of congressional districts is used to quantify how an incumbent’s expenditure in previous elections impacts the probability of running unopposed in a later election. The third chapter estimates the value of a congressional seat based on the observed campaign expenditures. Campaign expenditures are modeled as bids in an asymmetric all-pay auction. The model produces predictions on how much a candidate should spend based on the partisanship leaning of each district. The predictions and observed expenditures are then used to estimate the value of a congressional seat. Along with analyzing how expenditures would change with new campaign finance reforms, this model has the capability of quantifying the effect of redistricting. After 2010 Census results become available, the majority of states will redraw their congressional districts changing the distribution of partisan votes. This model can be used to quantify the effect that the change in voter distribution has on campaign expenditures. / text

For years political fundraising was structured around who could raise the most to outlast their opponent. The 2016 presidential elections showed that this standard was no longer the case. Fundraising was a core aspect of campaign finance that was further advanced with the introduction of Citizens United. It established new outlets of fundraising known as super PACs that changed the dynamics in campaign finance. This further incentivized presidential candidates to raise as much funds as they could. Former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush embodied this new gold standard in his 2016 campaign run. On the other hand, celebrity mogul Donald Trump completely defied all standards with his self-funded 2016 campaign. Bush’s defeat and Trump’s victory represents a new era of campaign finance for future elections.

O crescimento do número de parlamentares evangélicos ao longo das últimas legislaturas acompanha o crescimento populacional de brasileiros evangélicos em todo o Brasil. Esta lógica faz sentido a partir do momento em que o eleitorado evangélico passa a buscar opções e candidatos que possam vir a representar seus interesses no Parlamento em concordância com os princípios da religião, o que ocasiona, também o crescimento de candidatos que se utilizam do discurso da religião para atrair votos dos fiéis. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar se os candidatos evangélicos possuem um perfil de financiamento de campanha eleitoral diferente de outros candidatos. Mais especificamente, analisamos o volume de arrecadação dos candidatos evangélicos; assim como, as diferentes fontes de arrecadação de recursos; como o dinheiro é gasto nas campanhas; e se a arrecadação possui um efeito diferenciado nos votos obtidos e no sucesso eleitoral. Estudaremos as eleições de 2014 para os cargos de Deputado Estadual e Federal, realizando um estudo comparativo entre candidatos evangélicos e não evangélicos. A metodologia utilizada consistirá na regressão linear multivariada e, também, na regressão logística. / The growing number of evangelical parliamentarians over the past legislatures accompanies population growth of evangelical Brazilians. This happen from the moment that evangelical electorate goes to seek options and candidates who may represent their interests in Parliament in accordance with the principles of religion, and there is also the growth of candidates who use the religion speech to attract the votes of this group. This research aims to analyze whether the evangelical candidates have a different election campaign financing profile of other candidates. Moreover, we analyze the total funds of the evangelical candidates; as well as the different sources of fundraising; how money is spent in the campaigns; and whether the total funds have a different effect on votes and electoral success. We will study the 2014 elections for Federal Deputy and State Deputy, performing a comparative study between evangelical and non-evangelical candidates. The methodology will be multivariate linear regression and logistic regression.

O crescimento do número de parlamentares evangélicos ao longo das últimas legislaturas acompanha o crescimento populacional de brasileiros evangélicos em todo o Brasil. Esta lógica faz sentido a partir do momento em que o eleitorado evangélico passa a buscar opções e candidatos que possam vir a representar seus interesses no Parlamento em concordância com os princípios da religião, o que ocasiona, também o crescimento de candidatos que se utilizam do discurso da religião para atrair votos dos fiéis. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar se os candidatos evangélicos possuem um perfil de financiamento de campanha eleitoral diferente de outros candidatos. Mais especificamente, analisamos o volume de arrecadação dos candidatos evangélicos; assim como, as diferentes fontes de arrecadação de recursos; como o dinheiro é gasto nas campanhas; e se a arrecadação possui um efeito diferenciado nos votos obtidos e no sucesso eleitoral. Estudaremos as eleições de 2014 para os cargos de Deputado Estadual e Federal, realizando um estudo comparativo entre candidatos evangélicos e não evangélicos. A metodologia utilizada consistirá na regressão linear multivariada e, também, na regressão logística. / The growing number of evangelical parliamentarians over the past legislatures accompanies population growth of evangelical Brazilians. This happen from the moment that evangelical electorate goes to seek options and candidates who may represent their interests in Parliament in accordance with the principles of religion, and there is also the growth of candidates who use the religion speech to attract the votes of this group. This research aims to analyze whether the evangelical candidates have a different election campaign financing profile of other candidates. Moreover, we analyze the total funds of the evangelical candidates; as well as the different sources of fundraising; how money is spent in the campaigns; and whether the total funds have a different effect on votes and electoral success. We will study the 2014 elections for Federal Deputy and State Deputy, performing a comparative study between evangelical and non-evangelical candidates. The methodology will be multivariate linear regression and logistic regression.

This thesis examines the recently decided Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The case regards campaign finance reform, and has raised significant controversy recently. This thesis will evaluate the arguments from both the dissent and the majority opinions, contextualize these arguments with respect to the history of campaign finance reform and the history of the legislation with regard to corporations, and will ultimately pass judgment on whether the Court was correct in its decision. Implications for the post-Citizens world will also be considered.

Justifications for campaign finance regulations in the United States have traditionally taken one of two approaches. The first and most common has been to allege that unrestricted campaign contributions and expenditures lend themselves to corruption, or to the appearance of corruption. The second, used far less often than the first, has argued that unchecked spending on an election compromises the principle of political equality--the idea that each individual should have equal say in the democratic process. This paper defends political equality as a value worth preserving, demonstrates that our current campaign finance system is dangerous to political equality, proposes some solutions to that problem, and evaluate the constitutionality of those solutions.