Dr. Keith Hamm
The Impact of Campaign Finance Laws in the U.S. States
and Canadian Provinces
It is in vogue for commentators and political pundits to
decry the role of money in the electoral process. A review
of the scholarly and policy literature suggests that most
recommendations for changing the system are based upon limited
evidence usually derived from anecdotes or evaluations from
a small number of cases. I propose to provide a different
approach to assess the impact of money by first examining
the nature of campaign finance systems in the fifth states
and in the Canadian provinces. The central research question
is: How do the campaign finance laws shape the behavior
of those involved in the electoral process? Specifically,
how are the actions of candidates, parties, interest groups,
and contributors affected by the nature of each campaign
finance system? A major justification for examining this
question at the state and provincial level is that there
is tremendous variation in the laws regulating campaign
funding with the Canadian provinces generally regulating
campaign expenses as well as contributions. The National
Science Foundation, the Canadian Studies Grant Program,
and the Fulbright Scholar Exchange Program have funded this
research. The Century Scholar will assist the principal
investigator in data collection and analysis.
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