Money matters: The impact of gender quotas on campaign spending for women candidates

Despite concerns that women candidates are hampered by gender gaps in campaign financing, few scholars have examined how gender quotas impact women candidates’ access to campaign funds. We examine the effect of a party-based gender quota on women candidates’ financing and electoral success in Ireland. Under the gender quota, the number of women candidates increased and parties acted strategically to provide women challengers with increased financial support. However, women challengers spent less candidate funds than men challengers and were less likely to have prior officeholding experiences associated with fundraising. Women challengers’ disadvantage is concerning because candidate expenditures are associated with winning votes. Our findings show that the effectiveness of a gender quota is partly determined by how the quota interacts with the campaign finance system and the political opportunity structure.

Clientelism in the electoral process as a manifestation political corruption. Case of Ukraine

Authors consider political corruption and clientelism in the electoral process as destructive phenomena that violate the normal principle of society and artificially create obstacles within the political system. The understanding of clientelism by different authors as a component of political corruption, the conditions of its existence, as well as the consequences and influence on political power are analysed. Basing on the achievements of foreign scientists, the content and the essence of the concept of “electoral clientelism” is determined, the main reasons and preconditions of this phenomenon emergence are found, the authors’ own definition, summarizing the known scientific approaches, is offered. The devastating impact of clientelism on the electoral process that results in violating the principle of competition between political forces, and further leads to the development of corruption in the power system, is elucidated. Varieties of electoral clientelism in accordance with the tasks set by corrupt subjects of the electoral process in order to gain an advantage over opponents during the voting are found out. Apart from the approach, where electoral clientelism provides material benefits to voters, an approach, where the voters are constantly informed of the clientele character data, basing on which the unfair politicians create a mobilization campaign, is considered. The authors showed their own vision of the connection between electoral clientelism and political corruption manifested in the occupation of political positions by ineffective candidates and further use of their powers for private purposes, which will threaten the long-term prospects of social development. A number of ways to regulate clientelism’s impact on the electoral process, in particular through electronic voting introduction, established compulsory voting, agitation campaign financing control, severe penalties for clientele activity etc., are traced.

Media discourse on receiving funds for financing of the elections’2019 in Ukraine

One of the most important indicators of democracy is electoral transparency, which is characterised by the legitimacy of campaign financing. Since Ukraine declares its desire to join the European Union, it should demonstrate the compliance with the values common to the EU, one of which is democracy. In 2019, Ukraine held «double» elections, around which, traditionally, a multi-vector discourse unfolded in the media space. One of the areas covered was the financing of election campaigns. The author applied one of the basic sociological methods of document analysis – content analysis of the discourse devoted to financing the 2019 presidential and parliamentary election campaigns in Ukraine. The results of empirical study demonstrated that funding for these two campaigns was reported differently. Thus, in the coverage of the presidential campaign considerable attention was paid to the coverage of its various aspects. Moreover, the attention was paid to the type of voter bribery, known as direct. The parliamentary media campaign received less attention than the presidential campaign. The most frequent attention was paid to indirect voter bribery. The tone of the discourse was quite difficult to capture, however, if we evaluate the correlation between the negative and positive contexts of describing the financing of election campaigns, then, of course, the negative ones were much more prevalent.

Do candidates benefit from rejecting PAC contributions? Evidence from a pre-registered candidate evaluation survey experiment

Despite the public's purported distaste for candidates supported by political action committees (PACs), they remain prominent in American electoral politics, with their total spending exceeding $582 million in the 2020 cycle. Does this dislike of PACs provide an opportunity for candidates to increase their likelihood of (re)election? Using a candidate evaluation survey experiment fielded as part of the 2020 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), we investigate how the decision to accept or reject PAC contributions affects candidates' evaluation and voters' willingness to support their election efforts. We find that voters are more likely to vote for, donate to, and trust candidates that reject PAC contributions. Surprisingly we fail to find evidence of moderation by respondent's party ID. Republican and Democratic voters both penalize candidates that accept PAC money. This study is among the first to study how candidates' campaign financing choices influence their evaluation by voters.

Towards a Global Index of Electoral Justice: International IDEA Discussion Paper 2/2020

Globally, a wide variety of indices and indicators evaluate and provide information on different aspects of democracy and electoral procedures. On the one hand, there are indices that measure the quality of democracy and its resilience over time, focusing on building blocks such as the existence of representative governments, civil and political rights and necessary power limits. Other indices evaluate the quality of elections and specific aspects, such as voter registration, campaign financing and the performance of electoral authorities. Finally, others evaluate rule of law and access to justice. However, none of these indices focuses on the dimension of electoral justice, understood as the means and procedural mechanisms that guarantee free and fair elections, carried out in accordance with the law, and that guarantee the exercise and fulfilment of political rights. This is about to change. International IDEA, with the support of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary of Mexico, makes an unprecedented proposal for the construction of a Global Index dedicated exclusively to electoral justice. This document includes a measurement proposal with normative design, process and result indicators, which will offer useful and comparative information on the electoral conflict resolution system of a given country or countries. It will provide comparative knowledge on electoral processes and institutions from around the world and assess the quality of their electoral justice.

Direct democracy integrity and the 2017 constitutional referendum in Turkey: a new research instrument

In some countries, direct democracy is used successfully to increase legitimacy of decisions or mitigate conflict, and in other countries, authoritarian leaders seem to instrumentalize and manipulate referendums. How can referendum integrity be analyzed? This article presents an empirical instrument to evaluate the variety and integrity of referendums. This encompasses criteria for the analysis of direct democracy. First, we develop a referendum cycle model based on the electoral cycle framework, assessing referendum quality in a number of dimensions from electoral laws and electoral procedures, thematic limitations of referendums, to voter registration, the initiation of referendums, campaign and media coverage as well as campaign financing. The empirical instrument is designed to be used in expert surveys, and piloted in the Turkish constitutional referendum of 2017. The article presents the results of the pilot study, draws out opportunities and limitations of this approach and suggests avenues for its future development.

Seven Barriers to U.S. Business Leadership on Climate Policy and How to Break Them Down

This paper identifies barriers that prevent corporations in the United States from advocating for climate policy so that companies can break them down and embrace climate advocacy. We find companies face seven key barriers to comprehensively adopting a science-based climate policy agenda. None of these barriers are an excuse for inaction. The purpose of this paper is to help individuals within a company anticipate and overcome these obstacles. In the conclusion, we offer a checklist of specific actions and strategies to clear multiple barriers (e.g., conducting a risk analysis) and to help advance essential public policies that address climate change. The audience for this paper is C-suite and other key staff members within large (Fortune 500) companies that strive to be climate leaders. Though the United States grants companies of all sizes the right to engage in political lobbying and campaign financing, those that have larger operations and revenue have a greater capacity, empowered by greater resources, to directly participate in the federal policymaking process. Similarly, this paper focuses on political influence at the federal level.

From the Bench

Supreme Court, Libraries, Schools, Colleges and Universities, Book Publishing, Internet, Social Media, Free Speech, Prisons, Government Speech, Privacy, Church and State, Equal Protection vs. Religious Freedom, Net Neutrality, Campaign Financing