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Contributions & Limits
CCP Recommended Results
Issue Analysis 5: Do Lower Contribution Limits Decrease Public Corruption?
This CCP study shows that campaign contribution limits do not produce less corruption by public officials. CCP Research Director Laura Renz compared Department of Justice data on public corruption convictions to information on contribution limits in all 50 states.
Contribution Limits Case Study - Philadelphia
Michael Schrimpf
CCP study on the effect of contribution limits on Philadelphia's 2007 mayoral race.
Campaign Support, Conflicts of Interest, and Judicial Impartiality: Can the Legitimacy of Courts Be Rescued by Recusals?
James L. Gibson and Gregory A. Caldeira
July 2009
Category: Contributions & Limits, Jurisprudence & Litigation
Many legal scholars and observers perceive elected state courts in the U.S. as under siege by the politicization of judicial elections - most offensively, by accepting campaign contributions and support from organizations litigating before the very judges these groups helped elect. As such, the authors investigate citizen perceptions of the impartiality and legitimacy of courts. They focus on the residents of West Virginia, because that state has recently been a battleground for intense conflict over campaign support and perceived conflicts of interest and loss of impartiality. Through a representative sample of West Virginians, the authors test the hypothesis that recusals can rehabilitate a judge and/or court from perceptions of conflict of interest. Their findings were surprising, particularly in that contributions offered but rejected by the candidate have similar effects to contributions offered and accepted. To conclude, the authors' apply their findings to the recently decided Caperton v. Massey case. They find that several of the assumptions of the majority in the case are empirically inaccurate, at least from the viewpoint of the citizens of West Virginia.
The Perverse Effect of Campaign Contribution Limits: Making the Amount of Money that can be Offered Smaller Increases the Likelihood of Corruption in the Federal Legislature
Philip M. Nichols
January 2008
Category: Contributions & Limits, Jurisprudence & Litigation
Corruption is an important issue, which poses a special threat to the democratic institutions and integrity of the United States. The purpose of campaign finance regulation is to reduce or eliminate corruption. Congress has enacted substantial legislation for this purpose, yet corruption flourishes. This paper suggests that the campaign finance laws fail to take into account the actual decision-making process of a legislator contemplating a corrupt act. By diagramming that process, this paper demonstrates that the legislation, which focuses on limiting the size of individual campaign contributions, actually increases the likelihood of corruption. An understanding of the decision-making process points to other directions for meaningful regulation of campaign finance.
Campaign Finance Red Tape: Strangling Free Speech & Political Debate
Jeffrey Milyo
October 2007
Category: Contributions & Limits, Disclosure, Expenditure
Institute for Justice
Overview of New York Proposal to Regulate Campaign Finance
Category: Contributions & Limits, Enforcement, Lobbying
The following is a CCP analysis of the effort in New York to overhaul their campaign finance regulations.
Campaign Finance Laws and Political Efficacy: Evidence from the States
David M. Primo and Jeffrey Milyo
August 2006
Category: Contributions & Limits, Disclosure
Election Law Journal
The decline of political efficacy and trust in the United States is often linked to the rise of money in politics. Both the courts and reform advocates justify restrictions on campaign donations and spending as necessary for the improvement of links between the government and the governed.
The Effects of Campaign Finance Laws on Turnout, 1950-2000
David M. Primo and Jeffrey Milyo
August 2006
Category: Contributions & Limits
Working paper
Scholars have proposed many routes by which campaign finance laws may impact turnout. For instance, laws restricting campaign spending may decrease mobilization, resulting in lower turnout. Alternatively, such laws might increase the competitiveness of elections, resulting in higher turnout.
State Campaign Finance Reform, Competitiveness, and Party Advantage in Gubernatorial Elections
Jeffrey Milyo, David Primo, and Timothy Groseclose
April 2006
Category: Contributions & Limits
"The Marketplace of Democracy," Brookings Institution Press
Despite the attention given to electoral competitiveness and campaign money, little is known about the impact of campaign finance laws on electoral outcomes. In this paper, the authors estimate the net effect of campaign finance laws on competitiveness and party advantage in gubernatorial elections.
Rethinking Campaign Finance Prohibitions
Allison Hayward
January 2005
Category: Contributions & Limits, Jurisprudence & Litigation
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
This article examines the evolution of campaign finance legislation and its complex and often contradictory regulations. The author also questions the types of reform legislation often passed in the wake of public scandal and suggests that these often do nothing to address the specifics of a particular scandal or act. Finally, the article examines whether campaign finance rules as they exist today are a result of experience and considered policymaking by Congress and suggests that if they are not, that it maybe past the time to step back and reconsider the law's scope, in particular its prohibitions upon certain entities from participating.
Did Firms Profit from Soft Money?
Stephen Ansolabehere, James M. Snyder Jr., and Michiko Ueda
March 2004
Category: Contributions & Limits, Political Parties
Election Law Journal, Spring 2004
This paper uses event study methodology to measure whether firms that gave soft money to political parties received excessively high rates of returns from their contributions.
This Is Reform? Predicting the Impact of the New Campaign Financing Regulations
Patrick Basham
November 2002
Category: Contributions & Limits, Political Committees & 527s
Cato Briefing Paper No. 78
McCain-style campaign finance regulation is the new campaign reality. But what exactly will this reformist utopia look like? Assessing the "reformed" campaign of the future against the stated desires and expectations of the principal campaign finance regulators and their media supporters, this paper predicts the most important changes in political campaigning, changes that will be experienced for the first time during the 2003–04 electoral cycle.
