Money in Politics

The Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs’ Comparative Politics/International Relations Series presents Simon Weschle, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University, speaking on the subject of Money in Politics.

In politics, money is often the name of the game. Politicians enrich themselves while in office, spend campaign money to finance their re-election, and accept lucrative “golden parachute” jobs after leaving office. Money in Politics argues that these different forms of capital are part of a common system and should be analyzed in a single framework. The book advances a comparative theory that shows how self-enrichment, campaign spending, and golden parachute jobs are connected to each other. This theory explains when and how money enters politics, ultimately illuminating that a change in one form affects the other types and revealing the consequences this has for democracy. The book uses a wide range of evidence from countries around the world, including causally identified quantitative studies, qualitative cross-national comparisons, and original survey experiments. Enlightening and instructive, this book shows that we can only fully comprehend the role of money in politics when we view it as a common system to be analyzed and critiqued.

Simon Weschle studies democratic representation and accountability, and factors that impede it. His main area of research is the role of money in politics. His book “Money in Politics” was published by Cambridge University Press, and his articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and the British Journal of Political Science, among others.