Research Guides: Campaign Finance: Getting Started

Background / Overviews

Guide to U. S. Elections by CQ Press Staff
Publication Date: 2009
Provides thorough historical coverage of every major aspect of federal and gubernatorial elections in the United States.
Access to e-book available to NU-affiliated users only.

Campaign Finance and American Democracy
This literature review appears in the Annual Review of Political Science (May 2015: Vol. 18: 329-348) which published additional articles on this topic.

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Article text available to NU-affiliated users only.
Campaign Finance Laws: An Overview
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) compiled this overview of commonly used methods to regulate campaign finance.
Campaign Finance and the Supreme Court
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) provides this overview of some of the most important Supreme Court decisions dealing with campaign finance.

Congressional Research Service (CRS), a division of the Library of Congress which provides non-partisan research for Congress. Selected reports are linked below.

The State of Campaign Finance Policy: Recent Developments and Issues for Congress
CRS report, updated 2/23/21
Foreign Money and U.S. Campaign Finance Policy
Congressional Research Service Report, updated 3/25/2019
The State of Campaign Finance Policy: Recent Developments and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service Report, updated 12/13/2018
Campaign Finance Law: An Analysis of Key Issues, Recent Developments, and Constitutional Considerations for Legislation
Congressional Research Service report, updated 9/24//18

CQ Researcher Plus Archive This link opens in a new window
The CQ Researcher is a collection of reports covering political and social issues, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy. Examples of reports on campaign finance are linked below.

Campaign Finance: Does Big Money in Politics Subvert Democracy?
CQ Researcher report, Issued 5/6/2016, reviews issues related to funding political campaigns in the light of the 2016 Presidential election.
Campaign Finance Debates (CQ Researcher)
Issued in 2010 shortly after the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, this reviews the Court's role in campaign finance and provides links to additional resources. Search the CQ Researcher Archive for other reports on this topic.

Books

Recent Books

Buying the Vote by Robert E. Mutch
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 324.78097 N619d
Publication Date: 2014
Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know by Robert E. Mutch
Call Number: Main Library Stacks JK1991 .M88 2016
Publication Date: 2016
Explains the laws, regulations, and court decisions relating to PACs, super PACs, 527s, 501(c)(4)s, dark money, the Federal Election Commission, and the IRS, and asks how they fit into the larger debate about how we want our democracy to work.
Campaign Finance in Local Elections by Brian E. Adams
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 324.78097 A211c
Publication Date: 2009
Campaign Finance Reform by Melissa M. Smith; Gary A. Copeland; Larry Powell; Glenda C. Williams
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 324.78097 S655c
Publication Date: 2010
The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform by John Samples
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 324.78097 S192f
Publication Date: 2006
ebook edition also available
The Influence of Campaign Contributions in State Legislatures by Lynda W. Powell
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 328.73 P884i
Publication Date: 2012
E-Book available to NU-affiliated users only.
Interest Groups and Campaign Finance Reform in the United States and Canada by Robert G. Boatright
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 324.78097 B662i
Publication Date: 2011
E-Book available to NU-affiliated users only
Political Giving by Bertram N. Johnson
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 324.78097 J66p
Publication Date: 2012
Public Financing in American Elections by Costas Panagopoulos (Editor)
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 324.78 P976
Publication Date: 2011
E-Book available to NU-affiliated users only
Super Pac! by Conor M. Dowling; Michael G. Miller
Call Number: Main Library Stacks 324.40973 D747s
Publication Date: 2014
Voting with Dollars by Bruce A. Ackerman; Ian Ayres
Publication Date: 2002
E-Book available to NU-affiliated users only
Campaigns, Congress and the Courts by Robert E. Mutch
Call Number: Law Library: Stacks MON KF4920 .M88 1988
Publication Date: 1988
A political history of the passage, judicial interpretation, and administration of federal campaign finance law from 1907 to the present. The volume focuses on the post-Watergate years and analyzes the ideological and partisan conflicts which shape congressional and public debate over how, or whether, to regulate political money.