Campaign Finance Complexity: Before Campaigning Retain an Attorney

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The campaign finance system regulates campaign contributions and behavior with the intent to eliminate corruption or the potential for corruption in elections. With that goal in mind, state legislators created statutes regulating campaign behavior. Each state has wide variation in the complexity of campaign finance regulations. Regulatory systems create a network of rules and regulations and campaign finance is no different. The difference is in the behavior regulated and the potential negative impacts of a complex regulatory system. Candidates running for office must take time and effort to learn and comply with campaign finance regulations to compete in an election. If campaign finance regulations are complex, the time and effort required to learn and comply increases and has the potential to take candidates away from campaigning. This book studies whether states with complex regulations have fewer candidates running for office or more candidates withdrawing their candidacy after starting a campaign. This potentially negative consequence of campaign regulations impacts participation rates for individuals running for office. In a democracy, we desire more candidates in order to maintain a diverse candidate pool, but a complex regulatory system may adversely affect that goal by increasing candidate costs.

Reviews

Money is a major factor in American campaigns and elections. Navigating the complex laws regulating the role of money in politics is a major hurdle for candidates running for office. Campaign Finance Complexity: Before Campaigning Retain an Attorney captures that complexity and how effectively having access to a lawyer to understand campaign finance laws has effectively become another prerequisite in running for office. Shepherd powerfully describes how the laws of campaign finance and running for office have been captured by lawyers and legal teams. -- David Schultz, University of Minnesota, School of Law
When individuals think about campaigns and elections they often do not consider the tremendous complexity involved with the numerous rules and regulations. This complexity can have substantial effects on the types of candidates seeking office and the necessary resources they must expend on compliance. Mary Jo McGowan Shepherd examines this regulatory complexity by examining the campaign finance statutes from all 50 states and develops a new measure of regulatory complexity. She then tests this measure across a variety of campaign related activities to identify the systematic effects that complexity exerts on candidate behavior. For scholars studying campaigns and elections, and individuals interested in how U.S. democracy operates in reality, this is a good book to have. -- Kirk A. Randazzo, University of South Carolina

Author Bio

Mary Jo McGowan Shepherd is lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.