Who Donates in Campaigns?

David B. Magleby is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, Utah, and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. He is the editor of a series on the financing of the quadrennial presidential election in the US since 2000. Jay Goodliffe is Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, Utah and Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. His work has appeared in American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Behavior, and other journals. Joseph A. Olsen is Associate Research Professor, Assistant Dean, and Director of Information Technology and Research Support in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences at Brigham Young University, Utah. He is a member of the American Statistical Association and the Psychometric Society.

• 1. The importance of donors in American politics; 2. Profile of donors in 2008 and 2012; 3. What motivates donors to contribute?; 4. How the Internet, BCRA, and super PACs have affected campaigns, donor attitudes, and behavior; 5. New, repeat, continuing, and lapsed donors; 6. What distinguishes small donors?; 7. The diminished gender gap among democratic donors; 8. The timing of donations in presidential campaigns; 9. Policy implications of changing laws, regulations, and of who donates; 10. What explains donor behavior?

'This fine book constitutes the state of the art in scholarship on individual contributors. Drawing on large, well-designed surveys and many in-depth interviews, the book advances theory, methods, and substantive knowledge, and is an impressive accomplishment. Highly recommended.' Clyde Wilcox, Georgetown University, Washington, DC