Alejandro Poiré
How can we curb the influence of ‘power money’ in electoral politics? In contemporary societies, efforts to strengthen democratic governance, social justice and the rule of law must take into account the role played by campaign and party finance in democratic representation. This is most critical for newly democratized countries, where institutions are likely to be more fragile and the power of moneyed interests most corrupting. The issue of political finance has become an ever-present concern of analysts and politicians in the US and the world over. However, even recent surveys of the field recognize that public debates over money and electoral politics too frequently lack a sound empirical and theoretical grounding.
To address the impact of campaign finance regulations on democratic representation, this project will construct a yearly database of political finance data from the 32 states of Mexico. The data has never collected before, and will allow for a systematic analysis of the impact of these regulations (which include different levels of public finance, campaign spending limits, limits on individual and total contributions and disclosure/auditing standards) on several variables of interest, such as electoral competitiveness volatility, party system fragmentation, emergence and success of new parties in legislature, etc.
This project will provide much needed evidence to substantiate some of the claims being made about political finance institutions in international and US policy debates. It will help us learn which institutions work and which don’t in stopping corrupting influences in electoral representation, and in so doing, help us find ways of making parties more responsive to citizens’ concerns.