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Who Contributes?

Checkbook Participation, Class Biases, and the Impact of Legal Reforms, 1952-1994

University of Arkansas

ROBERT K. GOIDEL

Indiana State University

The changing demographic trends of voter turnout have been a focus of great debate. Nevertheless, voter turnout is only one avenue through which citizens participate in electoral politics. Although the number of citizens voting may have declined since the 1960s, other forms of participation, such as financial contributions, have increased in terms of the number of citizens engaging in such activity. We find that although class biases in financial contributions are great within each election, these biases demonstrate no consistent trend toward increased or decreased class biases in financial contributions. The extent to which any specific election is skewed along economic class lines results largely from the behavior of those at the highest income levels. Finally, we find little empirical support that legal reforms designed to increase the base of campaign contributions have had any significant impact on who contributes.

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