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.