The Cost of Doing Business: Clean Elections Programs and Legislator Ideology

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This thesis examines whether the Clean Elections programs of Arizona, Maine, and Connecticut are having an impact on polarization in these state legislatures. I rely upon an original dataset of participation rates in these programs, US Census data, and Shor-McCarty NP scores of legislator ideology. I find that Clean Elections programs facilitate increased polarization in certain cases, and increased liberalism in others, though these findings are highly contextualized. That these programs have an ideological component which is impacting electoral decisions challenges policymakers to take a more comprehensive view when looking to adopt a system of full public financing.

    Item Description
    Name(s)
    Date
    April 15, 2016
    Extent
    151 pages
    Language
    eng
    Genre
    Physical Form
    electronic
    Discipline
    Rights and Use
    In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted
    Digital Collection