Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• La Raja, Raymond J.
• Schaffner, Brian F.

Titel

Explaining the unpopularity of public funding for congressional elections

Ist Teil von

• Electoral studies, 2011-09, Vol.30 (3), p.525-533

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Quelle

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This article uses data from the 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study to explain weak support for public financing of congressional campaigns. Previous studies lack theory to explain variation in support and use a flawed measure of the dependent variable. We argue that low support reflects a failure resulting from a collective action dilemma. Citizens desire a campaign finance system that weans politicians from private donors, but are unwilling to pay a small amount in taxes to support public financing. In contrast to conventional wisdom, we show that support for public financing is highest among those perceived to benefit the most from the current system. Our results suggest that most Americans would rather not pay for politics, and that reform proposals must avoid incurring transparent costs on individual citizens to pay for reform. ► Weak support for public financing of congressional campaigns reflects a collective action dilemma: political campaigns reflect a public good (information, mobilization, etc.) but few individuals are willing to pay for them. ► The desire for, or opposition to, public financing of campaigns is not necessarily driven by partisanship or narrow calculations of political self-interest (at least among the mass public) as previous studies have suggested. ► Support for subsidized campaigns plummets when individuals are asked to contribute a small amount in taxes to subsidize elections. ► In contrast to the conventional wisdom, support for subsidized elections is strongest among those who currently contribute large amounts of money and those who are solicited the most frequently (wealthy, older, educated and male). These individuals tend to bear the costs of elections, even though particularistic benefits to them are uncertain, and would rather someone else pay for elections. ► Broad support for public financing of congressional elections will be limited unless costs are not transparent to individuals. In other words, paying for elections through tax revenues is unlikely to garner much support. The findings have implications for other kinds of political reform.