Caroline Hastings
This project examines the progression of congressional party polarization within modern campaign finance legislation based on the specific policy approach. The issue of campaign finance has experienced cycles of bipartisan consensus since the revival of the reform movement with the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1971. Despite Democratic members repetitively proposing campaign finance bills throughout the twenty-first century, Congress has passed no significant legislation since 2002. I examine when specific campaign finance policies became partisan issues and compare these trends to the broader pattern of polarization in Congress. To do so, I calculate the party difference score of each roll call vote on campaign finance legislation since the 91st Congress and code them by their primary policy approach to analyze the differences in the progression of polarization within the different reform efforts. Comparing the partisan unity on these specific policies within campaign finance sheds light on what elements of the campaign finance debate are most ingrained within the parties.
Comments
Thanks for sharing this work. What would be a possible next step if someone were to continue investigating this? —Rob Reichle
This is really interesting. It makes me wonder why congress hasn’t passed any legislation since 2002, especially as campaigning has changed significantly in 18 years. —Megan Offsie