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Full-Text Articles in Law
Can Small Donations Have Big Consequences? Candidate Ideology, Small Donations, And Election Results In The 2016 And 2018 Congressional Cycles, Michael Borecki
Can Small Donations Have Big Consequences? Candidate Ideology, Small Donations, And Election Results In The 2016 And 2018 Congressional Cycles, Michael Borecki
Honors Projects
Small donors have provided an increased share of total campaign contributions in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 U.S. federal election cycles, including about $3 billion of the $14.4 billion raised in 2020. Campaign funding is still dominated by an influential set of large donors, but small donations may be the basis for an effective response to the disproportionate amount of “big money” in politics. This study investigates whether candidates who are more extreme perform better with small donors, and then examines the impact of small donations and overall funding on election results. These analyses were performed using linear sum-of-squares regression …
America's Electoral Problem: The Shortcomings Of The Electoral College In Contemporary American Democracy, Alex Kaplan
America's Electoral Problem: The Shortcomings Of The Electoral College In Contemporary American Democracy, Alex Kaplan
Senior Theses and Projects
Our Constitution mandates the president of the United States be elected through the electoral college, a mechanism originally engineered to be a compromise between a popular vote by qualified citizens and a vote by Congress. The electoral college existed without controversy up until the 21st century because it consistently produced a winning candidate which mirrored the popular vote, our contemporary perception of a democratic voting method. The legitimacy of the electoral college in the 21st century, however, has been called into question after two of the last five presidents have failed to win the popular vote. Critics of the institution …