Page 26 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

DEMAND FOR DURABLE AND NON-DURABLE POLITICAL GOODS

Key Words: Interest-groups, campaign budget, political goods

JEL Classification Codes: P16

Introduction
Elections in the United States usually present voters with complex, multi-part

ballots including a host of contests for elected federal, state, and local offices as well
numerous direct-vote ballot measures and referenda. Individual voters cast their

ballots (and even decide whether or not to cast ballots) armed with an array of
ideological preferences, personal prejudices, the opinions of others, and exposures to

campaign materials via broadcast and print media, direct mail, telephone, and the

internet. The campaign materials important to voter decisions are in turn the output of
the various parties, candidates, special interests, and advocacy groups that are election

participants.
These election participants either as individuals or as the agents of others

must decide how to allocate their scarce resources over various kinds of
campaign materials in order to optimally achieve the election outcomes they

desire. They choose from among a variety of political goods including voter

mobilization efforts, data base construction, building grass roots organizations,
hosting events, media advertising, direct mail and direct phone contacts, and

other activities. Importantly, some of these political goods, like building a grass

roots organization, are likely to have durable impacts over time, while others,
like media advertising are likely to be ephemeral in impact. The choices among

political goods that election participants make depend upon various
characteristics of those participants.

In this study we examine the expenditure patterns of certain advocacy
groups to determine if their allocation choices vary in systematic ways based

upon characteristics of the groups. Specific group characteristics include

ideology, nature of the organization and duration of political activity. By
examining the reported expenditures of large “527 groups” that have been

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