Descrizione del progetto
Uno sguardo più attento ai finanziamenti, alle informazioni e all’influenza delle campagne
Quali sono le ragioni alla base dei contributi alle piccole campagne politiche? La politica fiscale condiziona le donazioni politiche? Perché così pochi politici provengono dalla classe operaia? Qual è la capacità dei media di indurre i cittadini a compiere decisioni elettorali che altrimenti non prenderebbero se le informazioni fossero imparziali? Il progetto PARTICIPATE, finanziato dall’UE, cerca di fornire una risposta a tali interrogativi. Impiegherà nuovi dati a livello individuale per studiare finanziamenti, informazioni ed influenza delle campagne, concentrandosi sui piccoli donatori. Le scoperte potrebbero condurre a una rivalutazione delle teorie dell’influenza di gruppi di interesse e di formazione politica speciali. Inoltre, il progetto PARTICIPATE prenderà in considerazione le decisioni dei cittadini di concorrere alle elezioni, studiando anche il ruolo svolto dai media nell’influenzare la partecipazione.
Obiettivo
The goal of PARTICIPATE is to develop a comprehensive approach to the study of campaign finance, information and influence, using new individual-level data and investigating recent changes in participation behaviors. What are the motives behind small campaign contributions? Does tax policy affect political giving? Why are so few politicians from the working class and can this change? What is the ability of the media to induce citizens to make electoral decisions they would not make if reporting were unbiased? While there is evidence at the macro level on the flow of money in elections, news consumption, or the extent of charitable giving, relatively little is known at the micro level, e.g. on individual-level behaviours such as the motivations of small donors, the tax-price elasticity of political donations, or the exposure to competing information flows. PARTICIPATE will help fill this gap. By providing groundbreaking evidence on new forms of participation, it will lead to the reassessment of influential theories of special interest groups and policy formation. One distinguishing feature of the proposal is to combine comprehensive individual-level datasets and the use of computer sciences tools (such as natural language processing techniques and machine learning). PARTICIPATE will advance the existing research in three steps. First, I will propose a unified analysis of political contributions. This will include a groundbreaking assessment of the importance of small campaign donations, and a combined study of charitable giving and political contributions investigating the impact of tax policy on donations. Fundraising success can lead to the emergence of new candidates. I will then consider citizens’ decision to run for elections, and investigate the role played by network in political selection. Finally, given the importance of media organizations in shaping participation, I will study the changing patterns of information propagation and political influence.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
75341 Paris
Francia