On the Causes of Campaign Finance Reform: Power, Parties, and Ideology

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Author(s)
Nwokora, Zim
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2011
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In this paper I present ideas on why reforms to campaign finance laws occur. In particular I focus on the conditions that are likely to foster or frustrate the enactment of laws that make elections more competitive (competition-enhancing reforms). This class of reforms holds normative significance; as prominent theorists emphasize, the competitiveness of elections is elemental to functioning democracy.1 Thus, I do not aim to present a theory to explain every type of reform - or even all of those reforms that may have consequences for the competitiveness of elections - but rather to present conjectures based on deductions ...
View more >In this paper I present ideas on why reforms to campaign finance laws occur. In particular I focus on the conditions that are likely to foster or frustrate the enactment of laws that make elections more competitive (competition-enhancing reforms). This class of reforms holds normative significance; as prominent theorists emphasize, the competitiveness of elections is elemental to functioning democracy.1 Thus, I do not aim to present a theory to explain every type of reform - or even all of those reforms that may have consequences for the competitiveness of elections - but rather to present conjectures based on deductions from well known political science theories, which may (or may not) provide useful baselines for rigorous empirical investigations.
View less >
View more >In this paper I present ideas on why reforms to campaign finance laws occur. In particular I focus on the conditions that are likely to foster or frustrate the enactment of laws that make elections more competitive (competition-enhancing reforms). This class of reforms holds normative significance; as prominent theorists emphasize, the competitiveness of elections is elemental to functioning democracy.1 Thus, I do not aim to present a theory to explain every type of reform - or even all of those reforms that may have consequences for the competitiveness of elections - but rather to present conjectures based on deductions from well known political science theories, which may (or may not) provide useful baselines for rigorous empirical investigations.
View less >
Conference Title
Democratic Audit of Australia
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Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2011. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. For information about this conference please refer to the conference’s website or contact the author.
Subject
Comparative Government and Politics