While much is known about who votes in American elections, much less is known about who donates. In this book, the authors utilize a unique and historically unprecedented data set of donors from the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections to answer longstanding questions: what is the relationship between donors and candidates? How do candidates attract and respond to contributors? How do campaign strategies reflect changing campaign finance laws and the development of the internet? With unprecedented cooperation from the Obama, McCain, and Romney campaigns, the authors investigate presidential campaign donors at all giving levels to produce the most systematic and complete analysis of donors to presidential nominees to date. As elections are decided increasingly by donors' dollars, Who Donates to Campaigns? provides relevant research on the broader trends in partisan polarization and, more generally, on how campaigns can engage more citizens in political participation.
- Analyzes donors from a variety of contribution sizes to give a complete picture of those that donate, and compare small and large donors
- Utilizes real data from the Obama, McCain, and Romney campaigns to see who is donating to campaigns and to understand what that means for political participation and partisan polarization
- Examines not only how the legal and regulatory environment of campaign finance has changed since the last major donor studies were conducted, but also how changes in technology - especially the internet - have provided candidates and donors with additional ways to interact and make contributions
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Reviews & endorsements
'This fine book constitutes the state of the art in scholarship on individual contributors. Drawing on large, well-designed surveys and many in-depth interviews, the book advances theory, methods, and substantive knowledge, and is an impressive accomplishment. Highly recommended.' Clyde Wilcox, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
'Political reformers often speak of 'small donors' as a kind of salvation for whatever ails our political system. Professors Magleby, Goodliffe, and Olsen have done the hard work of looking at small donor contributions to recent presidential campaigns. This book is very important for understanding the motivations and benefits of small donations, and their limitations as a cure-all.' Trevor Potter, General Counsel to the John McCain Campaigns, former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, and Founder and President of the Campaign Legal Center
'Magleby, Goodliffe, and Olsen have made a major advance in our understanding of donors and the effect of their donations in modern electoral campaigns in America … The result is a massively important advance in our understanding of who donates and why they do, increasingly critical questions in today's campaign environment.' John Aldrich, Duke University, North Carolina
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Product details
- Date Published: April 2020
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781108453714
- length: 486 pages
- dimensions: 230 x 153 x 29 mm
- weight: 0.6kg
- contains: 57 b/w illus. 34 tables
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
1. The importance of donors in American politics
2. Profile of donors in 2008 and 2012
3. What motivates donors to contribute?
4. How the Internet, BCRA, and super PACs have affected campaigns, donor attitudes, and behavior
5. New, repeat, continuing, and lapsed donors
6. What distinguishes small donors?
7. The diminished gender gap among democratic donors
8. The timing of donations in presidential campaigns
9. Policy implications of changing laws, regulations, and of who donates
10. What explains donor behavior?
Look Inside
Authors
David B. Magleby, Brigham Young University, Utah
David B. Magleby is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, Utah, and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. He is the editor of a series on the financing of the quadrennial presidential election in the US since 2000.
Jay Goodliffe, Brigham Young University, Utah
Jay Goodliffe is Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, Utah and Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. His work has appeared in American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Behavior, and other journals.
Joseph A. Olsen, Brigham Young University, Utah
Joseph A. Olsen is Associate Research Professor, Assistant Dean, and Director of Information Technology and Research Support in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences at Brigham Young University, Utah. He is a member of the American Statistical Association and the Psychometric Society.

This title is available for institutional purchase via Cambridge Core

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Who Donates in Campaigns?
The Importance of Message, Messenger, Medium, and Structure

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