Buying Expertise
Campaign Contributions and Attention to Policy Analysis in Congressional Committees
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3448554 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kevin M Esterling (0000-0002-5529-6422, University of California, Riverside, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 101 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 93-109 |
| Publication date | 2007-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003055407070116 |
| OpenAlex | W2153839130 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 75 |
| References cited | 27 |
I examine the relationship between interest group hard money contributions and legislators' attention to policy analysis in U.S. congressional committees. I argue that groups tend to contribute to members who have a high capacity to develop effective policies and legislation. Consequently, over the long term, contributions create incentives for members of Congress to enhance their analytical capacity for policymaking. Using data from hearings on the Medicare program and latent variable modeling techniques, I demonstrate that members who have a higher latent analytical policymaking capacity tend to attract more contributions and at the same time tend to engage in analytical discourse in committee hearings. In addition, members with higher analytical capacity tend to disengage from discussions of the symbolic aspects of policies that are of interest to constituents. The results help shed new light on debates over campaign finance reform regarding the normative value of hard money contributions
Campaign finance · Economics · Incentive · Latent variable · Legislation · Microeconomics · Normative · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Public relations · Value (mathematics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research
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Partisan Models and the Search for Party Effects in the US Senate
Interest Group Theory
The Party Faithful
How Parties Nominate Presidents
The Comparative Advantage of State Interest Organization Research
Theories of Parties
The Road Less Taken
Party Coalitions in the US Congress
Social and Economic Justice Movements and Organizations
Who Sings in the Heavenly Chorus?
Party Nominating Procedures and Recruitment—State and Local Level
Activists, Influence, and Representation in American Elections
Methodological Issues in the Study of Political Parties
Political Parties and Consultants
State Parties Research
The Mobilization and Influence of Business Interests
What a Difference Twenty-Five Years Makes
Interest Groups and Agendas
Interest Groups in American Elections
The State of Research on Political Parties and Interest Groups
The Evolution of National Party Organizations
Lobbying and Influence
Urban Interest Groups
The Evolution and Alteration of American Party Coalitions
The Pure Partisan Institution
Linking Political Parties and Interest Groups
The President, Party Politics, and Constitutional Development
Winning Isn't Everything
Methodological Perspectives on Interest Groups
American Political Parties
The Oxford handbook of American political parties and interest groups
Legislative Organization and Political Representation
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The strategic allocation of PAC funds to effective legislators
Lobbying venue selection under separation of powers and resource constraints
The information portfolios of interest groups
Insuring hedged bets with lobbying
The online affiliations of interest groups
Reward of legislating
Campaign Finance and Policymaking
Interest Group Competition and Cooperation at Legislative Hearings
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Keeping tabs on the executive
Getting the message across
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Fine-tuned large language models can replicate expert coding better than trained coders
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When Do Politicians Grandstand? Measuring Message Politics in Committee Hearings
Systemic and Sequential Links Between Campaign Donations and Lobbying
Prioritized Interests
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Legislating Versus Campaigning
The Social Utility of Informal Institutions
Polarized Agents
Polarized Pluralism
How Internal Constraints Shape Interest Group Activities
How Are Politicians Informed? Witnesses and Information Provision in Congress
Policymakers' Use of Social Science Research
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Generalized Latent Variable Modeling
Information and Legislative Organization
The Content Analysis Guidebook
Legislative Entrepreneurship in the U.S. House of Representatives
Trust
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Home Style
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Congress
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All Votes Are Not Created Equal
Money and Access
Funding Mechanisms and Policy Instruments
Good Money and Bad Money
All in a Day's Work
A Panel Probit Analysis of Campaign Contributions and Roll-Call Votes
Framing and Deliberation
PACs and the Congressional Supermarket
Lobbying as Legislative Subsidy
Buying Time
Legislators and Interest Groups
Campaign Contributions and Access
| Unique citing works | 75 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,17 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2026 (19) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 74 |