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Party identification, the policy space, and business donations to political parties

McMenamin, Iain orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-1704-390X (2019) Party identification, the policy space, and business donations to political parties. Political Studies, 68 (2). pp. 293-310. ISSN 0032-3217

Abstract
Political finance scholars have paid little attention to the partisan preferences of business donors. This was because business donors were overwhelmingly concerned with the left-right dimension and enjoyed stable relationships with centre-right parties. These parties are increasingly tempted by economic nationalism. This new ideological flux provides an opportunity to measure the extent to which donors are party identifiers or react to changes in the policy space. Dramatic shifts in party policy on both the left-right and globalisation dimensions and a relatively transparent political finance regime make the UK a particularly apposite case to study this question. I analyse 19,000 donations to the Conservative Party and show that business donors reacted strongly to recent shifts on both the left-right and globalisation dimensions. Thus, centre-right parties may not be able to rely on party identification and their left-right position to maintain business funding. Economic nationalism is likely to cost centre-right parties money.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Brexit; political finance; business and politics; British Conservative Party; policy space; political parties
Subjects:Social Sciences > Political science
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Law and Government
Publisher:Sage
Official URL:https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321719841243
Copyright Information:© 2019 Sage
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. View License
ID Code:23204
Deposited On:24 Apr 2019 09:08 by Iain Mcmenamin . Last Modified 27 Apr 2020 12:26
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